Teamwork 2
by Asuka Kureru
Summary: NaruSasuSaku OT3. Sequel to Teamwork. Training, house, baby, Kyuubi, Itachi, oh my. What, you thought life would be easy? ON HIATUS.
1. Sakura : Moving Out

**Teamwork 2**  
(Sequel to Teamwork 1. Phear my imaginative titles.)  
Asuka Kureru

The other fics in this series are archived on ffnet (for fics not going over R) and my homepage (for the NC-17 version)  
Pairing: **NaruSasuSaku**.(And Kyuubi, sorta. XD) Meaning **threesome** (menage a trois, IE household of three). **NOT love triangle**. Meaning NaruSasu gay stuff and NaruSaku and SasuSaku het stuff, and sometimes all three of 'em together. Yay bisexual threesomes!

Warnings: Rated R for language, some violence and blood, and allusions to previous and future male/male/female sexual relationships. NO ACTUAL SEX ON FFNET. Full lemons are linked in my profile. (I don't write lemons often, so if that's what you're looking for, I suggest trying other stories.)  
Disclaimer: The characters and settings used are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. I make no claims to them, only to the plotline and the prose.

**Notes**:  
-**This ficverse was started before the Valley of the End was even complete**. It is AU to the current canon, as in Sasuke never got to Sound. There were repercussions.  
Characters are based on their Part One selves. Most of them aren't changed very much, if at all, since the way they evolved after Sasuke left would have been the same regardless. Sakura, though, is still a lot more Part 1 Sakura than Shippuuden Sakura at the beginning of the story. Teamwork!Sakura had no reason to harden herself as much as her canon counterpart, therefore she's physically weaker and more unsure than she is in current (chpt.350) canon. She'll get better eventually, just give her some time to find her motivation.

-Maybe we're going to see Sakura's parents at some point in the manga. But at the time I'm writing this, we haven't yet, meaning I get to create them, looks, names and behavior. Joy. :is lazy: If they appear at some point and they're nothing like mine, that's not surprising. I won't be changing mine to fit, though.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Moving**  
**(Sakura)**

"You are NOT going to be around that monster any longer, Sakura!"

Her parents had been, as expected, frantic. For a few days, her mother had even refused to let her out of her sight; Sakura had to lie to be able to see Sasuke-kun alone -- something about only authorized ninja being allowed to visit Sasuke's wing. The fib seemed painfully obvious to her, and she cringed at the thought that Kakashi-sensei was finally warping her personality just like he'd warped Naruto and Sasuke.

Haruno Hana already had difficulties tolerating the risk that her daughter would disappear during a mission -- but to have her disappear in the middle of Konoha, during what had been supposed to be a calm night out between friends, had been too much.

The lack of clearance was a great excuse to avoid going into details about what exactly had gone wrong during Sakura's visit. But the second Sakura found the moron who had let it slip that the Kyuubi had been involved, she was going to tear out his liver and stuff it up his nose. The first three days after she came back had been hard enough when all her mother wanted was to randomly hug her, but when the fourth day started with an argument over her going back to her team at the end of the week...

Sakura tried to talk, but could only produce a bewildered "What?" as reply.

Hana had always been reserved about Naruto, but she wasn't a ninja and hadn't seen first-hand the destruction the demon fox had caused -- she'd never shown the seething hatred Ino's or her other friends' parents had for the Kyuubi's container.

"I know you're dedicated, Sakura, and I understand that you take things like clearance seriously, which is why --" Her lower lip wobbled, and Sakura felt awful for lying and hiding things from her -- "why you can't tell me what he did to you, but Tanaka Megumi said he kidnapped you, and -- she suggested other things -- horrible things -- and I don't want you around him any longer!"

Sakura tried to reply, but her mother wasn't slowing down enough to let her get a word in edgewise -- everything pouring out at once, everything she must have been thinking during the three days Sakura was gone. Now Sakura understood the worried, "discreet" sidelong looks better.

"Getting injured -- risking death during your missions, that's one thing, and I'm proud of you for being so brave, even though you give me more white hairs than your father ever had to his name--"

That was saying a lot, seeing as her father had been born white-haired, even though now he was balding quite badly at the top.

"...but being in constant danger because of your own teammate! That is unacceptable."

_/Shit. Fucking gossips./_ Sakura had known it would happen, eventually, but she had hoped it would take longer. She caught her mother's hands to stop their nervous wringing and gave them a reassuring squeeze.

"Mom, calm down," she pleaded. "I don't know what you heard, but it was nonsense. The whole thing was a misunderstanding. Naruto..."

Her mother shook her head in denial, almost unraveling her heavy chignon of graying red hair. "That _thing_ -- I heard -- I wish you would just tell me! I understand that you're loyal to your teammates, and I understand that you've always been afraid to be rejected by the ninjas --"

"Hey! Sakura protested. That was a low blow!

"I never stopped you when you decided you wanted to be one, never! But you're taking this solidarity too far. If he hurt you, then you are going to change teams, or you are going to stop being a ninja."

"But he didn't hurt me!" Sakura protested, letting go of her mother's hands in irritation. She couldn't keep trying to soothe her if Hana was going to be so ... so... Argh! "And that's not even what you mean, is it? Why can't YOU tell me what you believe he's done?"

Her mother's lower lip wobbled, and Sakura fought not to wrap her in her arms. She was making her mother cry. She hated it.

"I hear he r-raped- oh, god, Sakura!"

_/It's not rape when there's consent/_ Inner Sakura muttered back, but Sakura had more sense than to blurt it out like that.

"He most certainly did not! If he had, I'd be trying to kill him right now, I wouldn't protect him!"

Apparently alluding to her willingness to kill people who wronged her wasn't the way to reassure her mother. Aw, no.

"My baby girl..."

"Mom, I'm seventeen, and I've been a ninja since I was twelve. I'm not a baby anymore." Half her age-mates were living on their own by now; the ones who belonged to a large clan, like Hinata, Neji and Kiba, had moved to independent rooms. By ninja standards, she was an adult.

But by civilian standards, she was still a kid. Sometimes she loved it -- it was good not to have so many responsibilities, and she liked being her mother's baby girl, liked going to buy pretty dresses with her and having her play with her hair and cooking together -- but sometimes, when she wanted to give her opinion on things like politics or the level of freedom she could claim, it stifled her.

"Sometimes, I think you want to prove how mature you are way too hard. You _are_ mature for your age, Sakura -- but you're still underage."

"Not by shinobi law," she countered sharply. Shinobi were legally under the responsibility and guidance of their parents until they turned fourteen or became chuunin, whichever came first. After that, it was traditional that they continue to defer to their parents as long as they lived under their roof, but if they wanted to move out, no one could officially stop them. Sakura didn't want to move out -- but she was pretty sure that if she'd been allowed to go through the exams again, she would have passed by now, which made her twice adult.

"The shinobi law is ridiculous -- how many of the genius children were allowed to climb through the ranks and killed and killed until they broke or went crazy ? It doesn't let children be children -- it only cares about ability, not emotional maturity, so don't use it as an excuse!"

_/... damn, that was a good one/_ Inner Sakura muttered, annoyed at being forced to concede that point.

"... So you mean that at seventeen, I'm not emotionally mature enough to know better than to get into an abusive relationship? Believe me, mom, if Naruto dared to treat me wrong, I'd beat him up so bad his grandchildren would feel it!"

A thought came at her like a kick to the chest and her breath hitched. _Our _grandchildren.

"Maybe you don't realize it yet," Hana snapped back, eyes narrowed in indignation, "but boys are good at pretending to be nicer than -- Sakura? Are you okay?"

"... I'm fine," she replied, voice wavering. She'd probably paled slightly. It was just -- just the reminder that -- _god_. She lifted a hand to her stomach, fancying that she could feel the little spark of warmth inside her, and fearing -- hoping. Wondering.

Her baby. Naruto's baby. Maybe. Maybe.

She understood her mother's fears, but she didn't want to hear her badmouth him. She just -- couldn't stand it. Couldn't stand anyone badmouthing Naruto, stubborn, faithful, chivalrous, silly Naruto. Her Naruto. Her boy. Hers.

"Don't. You don't know him."

"I heard enough--"

"He's sweet and funny and _silly_. He's risked his life to save me I don't know how many times! He's always protected me, cheered me on, smiled at me. So just _don't_. You don't know him -- he's _not the fucking fox_!"

Hana jerked back, startled and visibly stung. Sakura allowed herself a second to feel guilty.

"Sorry -- but he's _not_, mom. I know you think you know better, but you _don't know him at all_. He's the fox's _container_, NOT the fox -- and I know people say it corrupted him, but how many of these people actually talked with him? Even just once? Why don't you stop listening to gossip for once and actually trust your daughter to know someone she's lived with for over five years?"

She couldn't keep her voice from turning pleading at the end, desperate. She hadn't inherited her stubbornness from her father, that was for sure, and the way Hana was scowling...

"Mind your language."

Sakura winced and lowered her head. She didn't feel that chastened, but she didn't want to aggravate her mother now --

"You're too close. I can't expect you to be objective."

"Oh, because YOU are!" she couldn't help but lash back, incensed. Now THAT was grossly unfair!

"Maybe not," Hana replied just as quickly as her, "but how can you expect me to be? This is about my baby daughter's safety!"

"I'm NOT A BABY ANYMORE!" she yelled, slamming her fist on the table.

The wood splintered under her knuckles.

Her mother stared as the table fell to the ground in two pieces, a plate landing on Sakura's foot and rolling off to crack against the wall. "... That's it. Go to your room. We'll talk later, when you're ready to be reasonable."

"Don't you mean, 'when you're ready to admit that I'm right and you're wrong'?" Sakura replied. She breathed in deeply, trying to shove her anger down forcefully to leave only cold control behind. She would not convince her mother that she was mature by throwing temper tantrums, but neither was she disposed to let her believe that Sakura obeyed her for any other reason than because she wanted to.

Hana looked about to suffocate from astonishment and anger. "Sakura-"

"No. We are going to talk, calmly and reasonably, and you will not guilt me into acting like a chastened child. We are going to list the things that trouble you, then we will _talk_ about them until they _don't anymore_, and then -- I have some things I have to tell you too, but I'm not saying anything until you're ready to listen and try to understand."

_Now_, her mother was suffocating. "Chastened -- reasonably -- READY TO UNDERSTAND!"

Sakura felt a flush of anger rise to her forehead and took a deep breath, then another.

"I refuse to 'try to understand' why you put this -- this _monster _over your family!"

"BECAUSE HE _IS _FAMILY! He's--"

Sakura noticed with horror that her mother's wide-eyed stare was fixed on the hand that was protectively splayed over her belly. "Uh. I didn't mean it like that..." she attempted, but Hana was clearly not listening.

"Oh god. He did. He did rape you."

"It wasn't rape, mom," she said softly.

Haruno Hana sat down on the closest chair heavily, her grey-blue eyes painfully wide.

"... my little girl..."

Her breath hitched. Sakura's control vanished. "Oh, mom -- don't, don't cry, it's not that horrible, really! You -- you're going to be a grandma, and okay it's a bit early, and you're still young -- but -- don't cry, _please_!"

She reached out, hesitated, then decided to hell with it and hugged her mother tightly. Hana was still for a few seconds, but then she was clinging back and sobbing, babbling words that Sakura had a hard time understanding. Hearing her mother cry, even without knowing that it was all her fault, was horrible, just plain horrible.

"Shh, mom, mommy, calm down, everything's going to be okay, I promise -- everything's going to be fine -- just breathe, okay? Just breathe."

"Fine? Fine? I don't -- I can't --"

The way her mother cried -- it hurt, but maybe it was needed. Cleansing. They'd calm down now and they'd actually talk and things would be fine again...

"My baby, pregnant -- Kyuubi no Youko..."

Sakura pursed her lips slightly -- it was that or letting them quiver -- and slowly let go.

"I've already seen Hokage-sama about it -- that's partly why it took so long for me to come back. She's going to keep an eye on the baby, make sure it grows up right. But barring an accident, he should be normal. Just a normal baby, mom."

"H-hokage-sama?"

"... Yes... She was worried too, of course, but she made sure that Naruto's ... ah, tenant shouldn't interfere." _/...too much, you mean. Because he's already interfering./_ She couldn't tell her mother that if she wanted her to calm down, though.

Hana seemed mollified for a few seconds, then took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. "He's still what he is, and don't you tell me there's no danger at all. People hate him -- they might hate you, too. Even if you don't tell anyone who's the father -- my daughter, having a child alone! It's going to be so hard for you, and ... Maybe you should..."

"Get rid of the child? I thought about it. I couldn't. I just couldn't."

"But it's been -- how long?"

"A week," she whispered. Just a week. So short a time for her world to change so drastically.

It hurt to see the naked hope in her mother's eyes. "Then you can still change your mind! Think about it properly, Sakura!"

She decided not to reply that it was too late, way too late -- that the child was anchored to her and it would kill her to abort... literally. She just sighed, weary now. Hana just wasn't listening. "I will. But don't hope for too much."

"Even if _he_ was a normal boy, he's seventeen -- no boy I know wants to be a father so early. He'll abandon you, or he just won't be able to deal -- you'll be alone!"

Sakura shook her head, slowly. If there was one thing she believed in, it was that being alone was not going to happen.

"... He loves me. He really does. He'd -- he'd die for me." That didn't have as much to do with being her significant other than it had to do with being her teammate, but her mother would never understand what it meant to fight and kill and save people and each other together, day after day after day -- sometimes she thought even romantic, soulmates-love straight from a novel could never compare to the solidity, the depth of the bond you developed with the ones who guarded your back. "He'd do anything -- and he'll be a great dad -- maybe not very conventional, but caring and attentive and _mom_, please, don't _cry_..."

Hana wiped her tears. She was shaking her head, unconsciously, denying what Sakura was saying. It hurt. "I thought -- I thought you were in love with that other boy -- that Sasuke!"

Sakura was silent for a few seconds. "I was. I am."

"Then why are you locking yourself in a relationship with him if you love someone else? The last I knew he was just a friend! You're not going to be happy, Sakura -- and you have to think of what people will say, how they'll treat you -- it will only make it worse..."

Sakura bit her lip. "... I love Naruto... I really do. But -- Sasuke..." How could she tell her? How could she explain? _/Mom, your cute little daughter is a greedy slut./_ No, she had a feeling that wouldn't work. "It's... complicated..."

Her mother's voice broke. "Then explain! Explain so I can understand, because I don't, I don't understand and I want to!"

"If you don't even understand that Naruto loves me, you're not going to understand the rest!" she snapped back, swallowing tears. "He's one of the best things that ever happened to me - you don't have a clue how it feels to have someone -- just accept you, cherish you so unconditionally-" Her mother couldn't have a clue, because Sakura herself barely understood it, barely realized the depth of the gift. But she knew enough to treasure it.

She choked on a sob, closed her eyes not to see her mother doing the same. Some part of her had hoped that her mother would be happy for her. Objectively she'd known that it was a stupid hope -- she hadn't even been happy for herself at first; even now she wasn't sure she entirely was. Even in the best of conditions it would probably take months for her parents to fully understand and accept her new situation -- and this situation was so far from good, it could only get worse if her mother learned about the threesome.

"Can you accept? I don't ask you to understand yet, but can you accept?"

"Do you know what you're asking? Accept that my daughter is -- is -- with THAT mons- that _boy_ -- and pregnant, and you're barely seventeen --"

Her mother was not ready to listen. And she still thought that Naruto was a monster. Naruto was not a monster. He was a brat, and a bother sometimes, but not a monster. Sakura closed her eyes. Then calmly, she stepped back and bowed to Hana. Then she turned away and went to her bedroom.

"... Sakura? What are you doing?" Her mother was hovering behind her, wringing her hands, eyes wide.

She grabbed her emergency pack from under the bed and shouldered it, eyes shuttered. "I'm giving us space. Space to breathe and think. I don't -- I can't -- if I say anything more, or you do, then -- I love you, mom. I love dad too. We'll talk later. Promise."

Before Hana could reply, Sakura had disappeared.

* * *

Her feet had taken her exactly where she always went when things got bad, but she didn't notice until her hand landed on the door of the Yamanaka flower shop. Ino wasn't in sight at first glance, and realizing that she may very well be on a mission, Sakura suddenly felt like crying right in the middle of the street.

"Welcome, how may I help you -- ah, it's you, forehead-girl." Emerging from the back, Ino was wearing a dirty apron and wiping her hands on a rag, a bunch of flowers that Sakura didn't feel like identifying under her arm.

"Ino..." With faint horror, she heard herself choke; two seconds later the bunch had been abandoned on the counter, the little plaque indicating the shop's opening hours had been turned and she was being pulled to the greenhouse.

"Okay, spill." Ino pushed her until she sat on a little wooden bench in the corner, crossed her arms on her chest and waited. Sakura breathed in the smell of the flowers spilling over the sitting spot, trying to calm down.

"I had a fight with mom." She lowered her head; both her hands were fisted in her lap.

Ino argued with her father about every other day; huge rows that contained screaming and throwing things and sometimes an amazing array of ninja skills, and brought all the neighbors to the windows to watch the neverending Yamanaka drama. But it was very different; Sakura almost never did more with her parents than exchange a few annoyed comments -- which were usually enough to worry her to death, seeing as her parents weren't the arguing sort at all.

"Wow. Must have been a bad one. What was it about?"

"I - I... Ino... I don't know w-what I can say..."

Belatedly, she was remembering that there was a fairly good chance Ino would not be happy to learn that Sakura had snagged Sasuke for herself, and she wasn't sure how the blonde would react to learning that the shyer, more traditional Sakura had managed to get herself in a threesome. Ino was supposed to be the romantically adventurous one of the two of them. And there was the Kyuubi problem... What was she going to think of her now?

"What's your level of clearance?" she whispered. It was probably higher than hers; Ino was a chuunin. But she wasn't sure it was enough.

"Whoa there. If it's village business, then you might be better off not telling me."

"It's -- okay, not telling details. But -- Okay." She took a deep breath, then another -- then yet another. Ino stared at her with worry clear on her face. "It's -- something happened the other evening with Sasuke-kun and Naruto and I'm pregnant."

Okay, maybe that was a lot to blurt out in one go. Ino seemed to need a while to digest that one.

"Uh. Okay. Just so we're clear -- Sasuke-kun and Naruto are... related to the reason why you're pregnant?"

Sakura couldn't help but laugh, even if it sounded more like a sob. "Rather, yes."

"So. That sort of related. Yeah, I. Wow. Crap. Wait -- not that I think it's inherently bad that they were but -- wait wait wait, which one of them?"

Sakura whimpered and curled up, hiding in her hands. Her face was burning.

Ino didn't move for a few seconds, her breath just a bit too fast, and then she reached out and tentatively touched her shoulder.

"I don't know," Sakura admitted, so softly she wasn't sure she'd actually said anything.

Ino squeezed her shoulder softly. "Okay, okay. I'm guessing there was a good reason -- I mean, I know you, Sakura." Her tone turned from shell-shocked but hiding it into falsely snide and she nudged her gently. "Your forehead is way too huge and your breasts way too small to reel in two men at once. You vile temptress, you."

Sakura couldn't help it, she laughed. Sobbed a little, but mostly laughed.

"Hey, wait a sec. You had sex with Sasuke-kun! You bitch."

Sakura flinched.

"Was he any good?"

"Ino!"

When she jerked her head up to glare, Ino was tapping her chin with her finger mock-thoughtfully. "Yeah, well, most pretty boys think their looks will be enough for everything, but alas, I have learned it doesn't compensate for bad skills--"

Sakura whimpered and put her hands on her ears firmly. Ino smirked at her, tugging on her wrists until she let go.

"More seriously... I'm... a little jealous. Wait, scratch that, a lot jealous. But... sure, I still like him, but... you love him, don't you?"

Sakura nodded, looking down at her knees.

"Then I'm happy for you. And we're going to spar tomorrow, and this time I will kick your ass."

"Heh. You can try, Ino-pig."

Ino seemed worried suddenly. "Uh -- unless it was just sex? It wasn't --"

"Oh, no. We're... well, together. Sort of. I guess."

Ino's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You _guess_?"

"Okay, okay. We're together, but -- it's not as simple as that."

"... Because you don't know who's the father?"

"No... I..." She took a deep breath. "He -- he offered. He's going to m-marry me. I'll be an Uchiha. Uchiha Sakura. That sounds weird, doesn't it?"

Slowly, Ino sat down on the ground, face blank. Then she shook her head, and looked up. Sakura gave her a worried look, but Ino refused to talk about what was bothering her.

"I... see. But what if it's Naruto?"

Sakura played with a lock of pink hair nervously. Ino hadn't joked back; the marriage proposal must have shaken her rather badly. "Well... Officially -- it can't happen. Too much trouble. But... well, unofficially, there's a good chance it's him." She took a deep breath and continued. "You see, Naruto has this -- this problem that makes everyone old enough to remember fear and hate him -- I would tell you more but yeah, the clearance problem ... I can just tell you that it's like a bloodline, and it's potentially very dangerous, and my mom is already freaking out and I haven't even told her about Sasuke yet!"

"Yeah, I see the problem. She'd be happier just knowing that you're marrying Sasuke..."

"I already told her about me and Naruto. I'm not going to hide him," Sakura growled, scowling.

Ino blinked at her, visibly surprised by her protective response.

"You mean... it wasn't a one-time thing then."

Sakura swallowed nervously. She should have explained better. There was a difference between having sex with Naruto by accident, and dating him. Maybe Ino ...

"Hey, I'm not saying I was expecting it, but you know him better, and if you like him, then I say good for you. I just... I didn't know you liked him, that's all," Ino finished awkwardly.

Sakura lowered her head, hiding behind her hair. "I... it's weird. He was just -- just my friend, you know, I didn't even see him like that -- and now, with everything that's happened... It's so weird."

"Oh, I get it. Before, he was just a boy, and now he's a _boy_."

Ino was leering. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Something like that, yes. I mean, he's still silly and noisy and a glutton, but ... but when he caresses my hair - or when he smiles at me... I don't know, I feel so _weird_. He's still Naruto -- one of my teammates, someone I've known for years, and yet... And yet there's a whole side of him I didn't know... And he loves me, Ino, he loves me so much and I don't know what to do..."

She realized she was sobbing quietly when Ino enveloped her in a hug, rubbing her back gently.

"Okay, I'm kind of confused," she commented in a soft, soothing tone. "We're going to go over it again, to sort out the details. Okay?"

Sakura nodded, sniffling.

"So you and Sasuke-kun and Naruto ... had a wild passionate orgy."

Sakura elbowed her friend, but didn't deny it.

"Then you got pregnant. Then Sasuke, being his handsome and regal self, proposes to m-marry you. How do you feel about that? Just that bit."

Sakura registered the hesitation and gave her friend a worried glance, but she was smiling with determination; she would not talk about it just yet. Sakura took a minute to think. "I'm... happy. Deliriously happy. I'm scared too - that he's only doing it out of duty. That would be worse than being a single mother. I know he tolerates me, even has a sort of affection for me, but he's so uncommunicative..."

"Right, so at some point you need to sit on him and make him tell you out loud. Then you'll be sure. Now about Naruto. How did he take the proposal?" she asked, frowning slightly.

"Oh -- he wasn't jealous at all. Because -- you know... it's Sasuke, and... it's Sasuke." Sakura tried finding a better explanation, but it was difficult, because for her, it made perfect sense.

"And Sasuke, was he jealous?"

Sakura bit her lip. "No." She disliked herself for being bothered by that point, when she was relieved that Naruto wasn't jealous. One part of her would have been thrilled to see Sasuke getting possessive of her. But what bothered her the most was that her first thought had been, 'no, Sasuke hasn't been jealous of me'.

"And now, who's with who?"

Sakura winced and took a deep breath. She was pretty sure Ino had guessed, but it was the first time she was going to actually say it.

"Us. The three of us."

It was actually pretty liberating to say it. "We're together, Sasuke-kun, Naruto and me. They're -- my boyfriends."

She met Ino's eyes, and started giggling. She had said it, and it didn't sound particularly depraved, and Ino hadn't jumped on her feet to tell her in detail how perverted and immoral she was. And the sky hadn't fallen on her head.

"... Congrats!"

Immediately, Sakura felt her giddy laughter die. Ino had sounded... weird. As if she was gamely pretending to be happy.

"What's wrong?" she asked, worried. Maybe Ino was disgusted finally, and was just too good a friend to tell her openly...

"It's just -- it's the end of an era, you know?" Ino replied, a slightly forced smile on her lips.

She still looked sort of ... almost hurt, and uncertain; Sakura didn't like that. She took her friend's hand and squeezed gently. "Ino-chan?"

"Naw, it's nothing, I just -- I figured he... maybe he didn't swing that way. Since we never heard of him ever dating... And now he's ready to share you with another guy. Just so he can have you. Just... wow."

Sakura bit her lip not to blurt out her thoughts about that side of the problem. There was already a lot for Ino to deal with. She wasn't going to start babbling about the faint niggling worry that it was more about her sharing Sasuke with Naruto, about Sasuke humoring her because Naruto wanted her in.

"...I don't even like him so much anymore. I mean, sure he's handsome and mysterious and all that, but he's a prick too -- and he almost got Chouji and Shika killed."

They fell silent for a minute. By a wordless agreement, Sasuke's almos-betrayal was usually ignored.

"So, no, I don't like him like that anymore. But it's still a bit weird. To be frank... I never thought that either of us would ever have him -- it was almost more of a thing to bond over, in a really twisted way -- see what I mean?"

Sakura winced and nodded.

"But you did it. You got him. You _won_." Now Ino looked annoyed. "I demand a rematch."

Sakura started to laugh. "You already scheduled a fight for tomorrow, Ino-pig. So unless you mean we should fight over Shikamaru or something..."

"Hell no. Look at Shika and die. Your harem's already big enough."

"Aha, so--"

"NO. I am NOT possessive of him. He's my teammate. It doesn't mean anything -- stop laughing at me, forehead-girl!" Huffing, Ino poked her in the ribs. "What do you plan to do then? Go live with them?"

Sakura was a bit startled by the change of subject, but she was now relaxed enough that thinking of such things didn't panic her anymore. Or not a lot anyway.

"I don't think so. I mean -- we're okay, but - it's so new and I'm so confused and it's so complicated -- it's moving so fast, Ino... I just -- I need somewhere neutral, you see? Where I can calm down and think things through -- and where my mother can't think I'm choosing Naruto over her. You see?"

"But, don't you _want _to see him? Them?"

She tugged on a lock of her hair guiltily. "...Not especially -- not now, I'm tired, I don't know what to say..."

"But they should know about your mom. And maybe you'll feel better if you get to spend some time with them."

She thought about it. 'I fought with my mom.' Sasuke would love for his mom to be alive to fight with, and Naruto had never really had one, and she just couldn't imagine they'd be very good at comforting her in such a situation anyway.

It was just a stupid fight anyway, not the end of the world. She didn't want to run crying to them.

"... Not yet."

Ino sighed, then shrugged. "Okay. You can stay at my place. No problem. And I'll even drop your parents a note so they don't worry. 'kay?"

Sakura hugged her, tight. "...thank you, Ino. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Oh, you'd probably mope and make a mess of things. Just like now, except way worse. Good thing I'm so dedicated." She winked teasingly, and Sakura relaxed enough to crack a small smile. "Besides, this isn't going to be free."

"Oh - I'll help out at the shop, of course..."

"I was thinking of another sort of currency, forehead-girl."

"Eh?" She knew what Naruto would have thought of such a direct line; she squirmed and prayed for her blush not to show.

"Details! I want details. Juicy details."

Sakura started to blush.

"So, how are they in bed? Any good?"

Sakura choked.

"And the rear view? You have to tell me everything about the rear view- tight, shapely, muscled? Who's got the biggest-"

"INO!"


	2. Sasuke : Hug Her, Damn It

Notes: Bit shorter than the previous chapter, sorry. (except not really, because Sasuke was a b-tch to write in Teamwork; he wanted me to write one-shot naughty PWPs instead) Also, yep, I draw fanart for my own fics. I'm shameless. Link to some Teamwork cover art in my profile, for those interested.

Beta by Saro Lynne, whose fics you should read, like, NOW, because they rock almost as much as her. X3

* * *

**Chapter 2: Hug Her Damn It.**  
**(Sasuke)**

"The paint's supposed to go on the walls, not on the floor, idiot."

Sitting on the wooden guardrail that lined the open side of the corridor going to his apartment, Sasuke watched Naruto. His teammate was currently attempting to cover a large scorch mark on the wall with sky-blue paint. So far there was more on his face and hair and shirt than there was on the floor, and there was more on the floor than there was over the wall. The burnt stretch of wall was rather noticeable, proof that the trap Sasuke had placed on his door had been effective. Naruto was going to need hours to cover it all up. It was his own fault for not remembering Sasuke's warning anyway.

Sasuke was, in fact, rather entertained. He would have been more entertained if he hadn't been so unnerved by the knowledge that his small apartment was full of boxes and that there was a sleeping bag laid out on the couch.

He'd come back from the hospital the day before, to find his bare, quiet apartment utterly invaded by Naruto's presence. He hadn't thought he would mind so much -- well, he'd known he would mind the noise and the presence when he wanted to be alone, but Naruto had shown a considerable amount of understanding when Sasuke locked himself in his bedroom. The blond had been quiet -- or had tried to be, at least.

Sasuke had been ready for that sort of annoyance. He hadn't been ready to see Naruto drag himself in the kitchen in the morning, wearing only low-riding pajama pants and that ridiculous nightcap he'd owned forever. He hadn't been expecting the sheer importance of that stupid, stupid problem of how to behave around the idiot. Whether to insult him or not -- that one had solved itself on its own, because Naruto was eminently insultable and tended to look at him weird when he was polite anyway; whether to stare at his bare chest openly or covertly, whether to nod his good morning, or ignore him, or -- kiss him hello maybe?

Somehow, he couldn't imagine kissing Naruto casually. In the middle of sex, when it was more about biting and licking and fucking with their tongues, no problem -- but just like that? No way. It was too -- too... weird. Too much what a pair of enamored lovebirds would do, and his self-respect would never let him behave like that, and Naruto was his rival before anything else.

They hadn't done anything related to sex either, closely or not. It wasn't just that his still healing ribs didn't put him in the right frame of mind, or that Naruto had so far, during their whole forty hours of cohabitation, managed to annoy him at least twice an hour, which made seeing him as someone to be desired rather unlikely. Without Sakura there, at least for their first time after "the night", it just felt ... wrong.

Anyway, Naruto grinned maybe a bit more than he usually did, but apart from that he behaved like usual. So long as he wasn't expecting flowers and candlelit dinners, all was fine with Sasuke. Paying Sakura a bit of special attention was going to be hard enough; if they both expected him to romance them, he'd probably run off.

"Argh, I don't get it. It wasn't so difficult to paint the Hokage monument, and I did THAT suspended on a rope!"

Naruto's shirt was now more blue than orange. The combination was jarring. Sasuke decided not to tell him about the yet-to-be-deactivated seal that was intended to repel exploding notes and alterations to the structure of the walls, and made sticking anything to them more difficult.

"What are you sneering at, bastard?"

"You're an eyesore," he replied offhandedly. "More so than usual."

"And you're a stuck-up, sarcastic son of a bitch."

"I try."

Naruto paused, blinked at him, and started to laugh. Sasuke allowed himself a faint smirk.

"I'm gonna need to warn everyone that you actually have a sense of humor. Though no one will believe me."

"They'll run away screaming at the sight of you, anyway," Sasuke replied, giving his orange-and-blue shirt a pointed look.

"Okay, okay! Here, you happy?" Muttering in annoyance, Naruto whipped off his shirt. Of course he also managed to spread paint on his chest and to flick the brush wrong, ending up with a splattering of little sky-blue dots running up his biceps to end at the base of his neck. Sasuke knew that paint was toxic. It didn't stop his sudden desire to lick it off.

"... I think I see what you meant, Sakura."

Ino had paused in mid-step, her foot hovering over the landing. Sasuke frowned and berated himself for not noticing her before she spoke; he'd been so distracted by Naruto's antics that he had dismissed her approach, subconsciously deciding that she must be a neighbor or... something.

A pink head popped up behind her and Sakura appeared, blinking quizzically.

"What do you -- oh."

Naruto bounced toward them; Sasuke knew him enough to know that he was grinning like a loon. "Sakura-chan!"

Naruto paused before her, almost bouncing in place. He was probably wondering if he could, or should, kiss her. Ino's presence seemed to be a deterrent, though.

"Hey, Ino. What did you mean?" he asked the blonde girl, scratching his head.

"Oh, Sakura said you had... grown up. I can see that now." She gave Naruto a flirtatious leer. Sasuke scowled and cautiously slid off his perch.

"Sakura," he said quietly in greeting.

Sakura looked up at him and gave him a shy smile. There was something off about it -- about her... and he wasn't quite sure, but he was sure about the way Ino watched him come closer -- as if she wanted to hover protectively. Protect Sakura from _him_? "What's wrong?"

Naruto blinked, and stared at Sakura. "Eh?"

"What makes you think--" she muttered, eyes sliding away. That pretty much cinched it.

"You didn't say nothing was wrong. What's wrong?"

"Uhm. Well. It's..." She sighed, quietly, and gave Naruto and him a worried look. "Let's go inside."

He glanced at Naruto quickly. The blond was frowning now.

Sasuke pushed his door open and pulled Naruto's sleeping bag off the couch, rolling it up and throwing it over a stack of boxes. Ino and Sakura followed, Ino looking around shamelessly. Sasuke frowned -- Naruto invading his space was already annoying, but having Ino poke at things...

"Put that down," he grunted, and tugged a scroll out of her hands. "Sit."

'And stay out of the way' was left unsaid, though not unheard, if he judged by her nonplussed expression.

"Don't mind him, he's in prickly bastard mode," Naruto commented cheerfully as he walked in.

"Put paint on anything and die," Sasuke retorted dryly before disappearing in the kitchen.

"See? He's been like that since he came back from the hospital. Grouchy prick."

"I think he can still hear you, Naruto," Ino replied in an amused whisper.

"I can," Sasuke commented as he walked back in, carrying glasses and a bottle of apple juice.

"S'okay, I didn't say anything he doesn't know I think," Naruto replied with a chuckle. He was sitting on a chair. Sasuke almost kicked him off, then realized he was using his pajama top to cover the seat and decided to allow it.

"Drip on anything..." he warned anyway as he put the bottle and glasses down on a nearby box.

"And die, yeah, I know."

Ino was watching him and Naruto way too closely. He didn't like it.

"There's no tea left?" Naruto asked.

"I'm not your maid. Make it yourself."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "It's a wonder how you can be so visibly well bred and yet still be such a prick about it."

Sakura sighed and started to get up. "I can--"

"No." Sasuke crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "You can sit and tell us what's wrong."

Sakura winced and seemed to brace herself. "Alright... My mother knows about Naruto and the baby. I told her yesterday. I'm staying over at Ino's for now."

Even Naruto didn't need any help deciphering that one. "She didn't take it too well, did she?" he replied, grimacing, and reached out to touch her shoulder. There, he seemed to remember that he had paint on his fingers, and paused.

She gave him a crooked smile and sighed. "No, not too well."

"You should have started with the bit about you and Sasuke, that woulda made her happier... hell, you could have forgotten to mention me entirely -- ack!"

Sakura's eyes had just gone dangerously narrowed. "_No_."

"But it wouldn't bother me-"

"It would bother ME. Besides, knowing my mother's friends, she'd end up hearing about it anyway and then she'd make a fuss because I was lying to her."

"What did your father say?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura looked guilty for a second. "... He wasn't there when it happened."

"You will talk to him privately?" Sasuke asked. He did not understand how someone could fear their mother, and go to their father to play mediator, but... Well. Not all families were like his had been. Maybe Sakura's father would be more accommodating than her mother had been.

"I'll write, I think. It's easier to find the words, and at least he won't interrupt me."

"He would?"

She shrugged. "No, but he'd make up his mind about three sentences in, and would spend the rest of my speech wiping off his glasses and waiting for me to finish."

He knew her well enough to notice that she was covering up a lot of fear and sadness under her annoyance. But he didn't know what to do about that new moral obligation to comfort her. He'd never been good at comforting. When Naruto was in a funk, he sneered at him until he got pissed enough to fight back, but that wouldn't work with Sakura. It would probably make her feel worse; she took him way too seriously. When she was depressed, she usually went to Ino -- who had probably done everything she could, but it apparently wasn't enough -- or her mother -- and her mother wasn't an option. Frowning, he looked at Naruto, who looked just as lost as he felt.

"For god's sake! Hug her or something!"

Ino was giving them both a disgusted look. Sasuke glared back. She was so --

"Nosey, I know. Listen -- sorry, forehead-girl, I gotta jet, I'm meeting Chouji and Shika at the dango stand," she said as she got on her feet, pretending to check her watch. "Now you two, I hope you're not as macho in private as you are in public -- though it could be funny in bed, I guess -- but just hug her or something. We'll talk this evening, Sakura -- and YOU-" she pointed at Naruto threateningly -- "had better walk her back. See you!" And with that, she hurried out, grinning as if she was very pleased with her own cleverness and didn't care who believed her or not.

Sasuke was left blinking in her wake. Disgruntled, he looked over at Naruto, still gaping, and Sakura, who looked deeply embarrassed by her friend's unsubtle behavior.

"... So you're sleeping over at her place?" he asked, just because he didn't know what to say. "How long?"

"I don't know. As long as I'm not okay with mom, I guess," she replied quietly, looking down at her hands, fisted in her lap.

"Why don't you stay here?" Naruto asked, absently scratching dried flakes of paint off his fingers.

"Where would I put her, under the kitchen table?" Sasuke snapped back, uneasy with the subject. They were moving too fast, but he didn't know how to tell them that without hurting them.

"In your bed," Naruto replied matter-of-factly. "Not saying you should share," he added before Sasuke could start bristling, "the bed's way too narrow to be comfortable for two. But you could sleep on the couch, and I'd get the kitchen table."

Sakura winced. "Um. Naruto... That would be nice, but... if it got back to mom that I'm living with you two, she would take it... badly. Like I've made my choice, and don't care what she thinks anymore. You see?"

Naruto frowned, visibly disappointed, but nodded. "I guess, yeah..."

"Besides, this apartment is too small for the three of us -- and we still need to work out a way to share the bathroom, or I can predict a few wars over it," she added with a poor attempt at a smile.

"I can start looking at larger places this afternoon," Sasuke offered. "Even Naruto should be able to paint something without supervision."

She nibbled on her lip thoughtfully. "We should talk more about what we want first... And total up how much money we can spend. And... stuff."

It was a testament to how out of whack she was, that she would resort to "stuff" instead of giving them a precise list of what they would need to do and in which order. She was usually the one who made the plans and took care of the little details. A good thing that he wasn't prone to nervous fidgeting, because he would have fidgeted. Maybe, he tried to tell himself, she would feel better if she thought about the little things...

Or maybe she would feel better if she got a hug, like that blonde harpy had suggested. But -- fuck. What was he supposed to do, actually walk up to her and put his arms around her, just like that? It would be different if she came to him, but he could see that she wasn't going to. He glared at Naruto, silently urging the idiot to do something, anything.

"Uhm. About the bathroom, I think I'm gonna hop into the shower, get that stuff off. It's starting to itch something awful..." Naruto didn't wait for a reply, just gave them a sheepish little smile and disappeared behind the door.

Sasuke was going to smother him with his own pillow. He glanced at Sakura, feeling the awkward silence stretch between them, thick and heavy with things he only half-understood.

He watched her lift her glass to her lips, just to give herself a reason not to look at him, and in two steps, was standing by the couch. He sat down on the other side. There was still a respectable space between them -- Naruto could have squeezed his butt there and only nudged them a little -- but that was all he could do. He felt awkward and annoyed enough as it was.

She put her glass down, deliberately. The shower had started in the bathroom, but it didn't cover the little thwack of glass meeting wood.

He knew that their positions mirrored each other's, leaning forward, elbows on their thighs, fingers interlaced, eyes hidden under long bangs. But he didn't know what to say, what to do, any more than she apparently did. He wondered if they would always need Naruto to break the wall of dignity, social conventions and standoffishness between them. For a second, he almost regretted the way she had disregarded his unease with casual touch when they'd been younger, the way she had glomped onto his arm so easily. She respected his comfort zone scrupulously nowadays, when he would have needed her to push past it.

"...Are you having any trouble with... your health?" Argh, that was lame, and sounded awkward to boot, but he already knew about her emotional state so 'how are you doing' wouldn't have worked. "You look ... a little pale." Lame, lame, lame. Stupid. Nosey too. Mother-hennish almost. The kind of observation he abhorred when directed at him... but that other people labeled "caring". She needed caring right now, and while he couldn't have done openly, honestly caring if his life depended on it, he could at least manage an underplayed approximation.

She looked surprised for a second, then smiled faintly. He relaxed a little. She was used to his understatements by now. "Oh. It's just the nerves, I think," she admitted quietly.

"Nothing else?" he asked, less hesitant already. She hadn't bitten off his head or looked hurt; it probably meant she didn't mind his questions.

"I felt a bit queasy during breakfast, but that's it. And it might be... well, just the nerves. It's still early." She managed a guilty smile. Her fingers were knotted together in a white-knuckled tangle; it made him frown.

"Stop that," he admonished her, untangling her fingers firmly -- and only realizing that he had moved when he noticed that he was massaging her hands.

Well. She didn't seem to mind. Mildly disgruntled at himself, he kept going, skillfully erasing all tension.

"Better?"

She nodded, not looking up, and leaned toward him. He tensed, then berated himself for tensing, and didn't even jump when her head landed on his shoulder.

His hand was caught between her back and the couch. It was uncomfortable. Of course he had to find a better position. His excuses were as lame as Kakashi's worst ones, but that was his story and he was sticking to it. Besides, she hadn't asked why his arm was suddenly around her shoulders. It meant she didn't care. Or didn't mind. What the hell was Naruto doing under that shower anyway?

"How are your ribs?" she asked softly.

He shrugged, awkwardly because he didn't want to dislodge her head. "Fine." They were sore, and still hurt, and if he bent over too quickly or carelessly there was a good chance he'd break them, but he could ignore the ache and move around well enough.

"... oh."

"Healing fine," he amended, because he didn't like her subdued tone. "I'll be back to normal in a few days."

"... Okay."

She closed her eyes. Her lashes were dark red -- dark pink, more precisely. He'd never noticed before.

"They won't break so easily, you know," he commented gruffly, and pulled her a bit closer.

She relaxed, slowly, and he pretended not to notice the soft tug of her hand on his t-shirt. Silent, they listened to the noises Naruto made in the shower, huffing softly in amusement when he bumped into something and started to swear. When he opened the door, his hair was still wet and his pants stuck to his skin, flushed pink by vigorous scrubbing. A few of his locks were still bluish.

"Back. Sorry..." He stared at them, falling silent, and Sasuke wondered what he was seeing. Wondered if Naruto felt like he was intruding. It made him want to pull back, for some reason.

"... I'm paint free now. Permission to hug, ma'am?" the blond asked, grinning innocently. It was a look that had never looked natural on him, but it was always amusing.

"If you want," she allowed, making an honest effort at smiling.

"Well, 'course I want," he commented, going over the arm of the couch to slide between Sakura and the cushions, incidentally pushing her closer against Sasuke. "Ino will kill me if I don't."

"And that's the only reason? I feel flattered," she replied with a pout.

"Okay, I was hoping I could get a grope or two out of it," he shot back, a wide, innocent, totally unbelievable grin on his face.

Sakura hit him over the head with a magazine. Sasuke relaxed into the couch and allowed himself to smile a little bit.


	3. Naruto : Sparring and Flirting

Notes: the daddy, the gender, age and hair color of the baby have already been decided, along with a few annoying personality traits that I'll probably never get to use. But I'm not telling, because I'm evil like that. XD

* * *

**Chapter 3: Sparring and Flirting**

**(Naruto)**

Well, the cuddling could have gone better -- they'd all been a little tense and there had been a few where-the-hell-should-I-put-my-hands moments -- but it had still been nice while it lasted.

Naruto could count the hugs he'd ever been involved in on one hand. Including the one where he'd been clinging to a dead, needle-full Sasuke. There had been a few flying tackles on Iruka and Jiraiya, but most of the time his teachers were in the habit of dodging. So, even despite the clumsiness, and the way Sakura kept fidgeting as if she wanted to reach out and grab but thought it was improper or something, and the way Sasuke never quite relaxed and kept avoiding their eyes, Naruto wasn't too keen on the letting go part.

They smelled nice, each in their own way. Sakura's skin was soft, and Sasuke's calluses scratched in a weirdly interesting way. Naruto caressed her hair, and teased Sasuke's cheek with a pink lock, making Sakura giggle and Sasuke roll his eyes in annoyed tolerance. Naruto smiled as her head rested on his shoulder, as her eyelashes fluttered against his collarbone, as Sasuke put his own chin on her shoulder, looking as bored and indifferent as he always did whenever he did something that mattered to him.

Sasuke -- the sneaky bastard -- escaped first, disappearing in the kitchen to cook lunch, and Naruto had Sakura for himself for about ten minutes -- his nose in her hair and her hand on his chest, arms wrapped around each other, sheer bliss -- before she decided to go and help. She did seem to feel a little better than she had earlier, so he let go, for all that he wanted to cuddle longer.

The meal itself was awkward all of two minutes, with shifty eyes and Sakura blushing whenever she looked at either of them, and then he and Sasuke started fighting again -- about the ownership of the saltcellar of all things -- and everything was back to normal.

Normal, as in before-The-Night standard behavior.

Naruto didn't protest the avoidance. He regaled Sakura with his adventures in Sasuke's barren kitchen the previous day, and laughed as she launched in return in a grand tale of her sparring session against Ino that morning -- a tie, as always with them two -- and both of them ignored Sasuke's bored looks and sarcastic comments with ease. Clearing the table went with lots of "where does this go?" and "ah, I was going to take that!" and a few "crap!" as a plate or a bottle slipped out of their grip. He wondered if he was the only one who noticed how similar the atmosphere was to the afternoon before Kyuubi's heat -- though the tension behind the casualness was, sadly, nervousness and not desire.

When it was time to be a little more serious, he listened to them making plans, listing places and people to see, laws and regulations to check, income to calculate. He only kept them supplied in snacks, and made a few comments here and there, and discreetly brushed against them both, touching a waist here, a shoulder there, breath ghosting briefly against a bowed neck, all the while grinning like he had no clue he was doing anything out of the ordinary. If they were going to be stuck up about it, then he would have to get things moving on his own.

He held Sakura's hand when he walked her back to Ino's place, and then went home to Sasuke.

* * *

Naruto rose to consciousness crouched on the windowsill. He didn't wonder where he was; he just admired the sight. The view he had on the sleeping Konoha wasn't one he was used to, but he liked it; it gave on a courtyard from which grew large trees, with footbridges suspended between them. That was one of the things he liked in his hometown, the dozens of passages from one building to another, from one street to another. Other towns were boring, all on the same level, trees pruned, contained behind wire fences. In Konoha, there were always layers upon layers, a veritable maze of stairs and catwalks and platforms, tunnels and arches that seemed to have grown more than they seemed to have been built. It reminded him of a man-made forest. It was a nice compromise.

Sasuke's building had good security, he observed absently, letting a claw-tipped finger brush against the wall under his perch. Though it could be done, it was hard to stick with chakra. Maybe Sasuke wouldn't bitch too much about leaving the window open. Naruto wanted to explore the courtyard, and the trees. But it would wake Sasuke up, and he didn't like leaving like that.

Though Sasuke hadn't woken up when they had prowled through the small apartment, trying to get used to the cramped space and the feeling of being an intruder.

The moon was shining on the tiles, in the leaves. He couldn't see her directly from here, and Kyuubi was restless. Sasuke would understand, and if he didn't, well...

Decision made, Naruto stopped thinking. Hand gripping the top of the window frame, a swing to the left -- catching the edge of the banister that ran along the left side of the building, and then climbing -- jump, roof, chimney -- handstand -- roof -- flying -- and a branch finally.

_'Maybe we're a squirrel demon instead,'_ he thought, vaguely amused. Kyuubi snorted, and scaled the rough bark to settle in the highest fork able to bear his weight.

They couldn't run through Konoha tonight, not with a mate to protect. Bastard was still injured, his den unsecured; they couldn't stray too far. Other mate was staying with a family of vicious, underhanded fighters. They'd check on her quickly, later. For now, they watched the moon, and the way it shone over the roofs of their territory, soothed by the gentle swing of the tree and the faint rustling of its leaves and the caress of the midnight breeze.

* * *

Yawning, Naruto sat on his heels in front of the Yamanaka flower shop and closed his eyes against the morning sun as he waited for his teammates.

He felt almost bad for letting Sasuke go in alone, but Ino was nowhere in sight; her father was manning the shop today and Naruto didn't feel like dealing with him. Most adult ninjas didn't like him much, and he was too sleepy to bother with any kind of hostility.

Stretching lazily, he leaned back against the wall. Maybe he could catch a quick nap; spending half the night prowling around Sasuke's building had left him borderline comatose and he didn't want to force himself awake just yet. Shikamaru had it right; laziness was of the good.

It didn't last long. He'd counted on Ino and Sakura needing about a half-hour of applying make-up and goodbye hugs and girly things -- maybe only fifteen minutes if Sasuke felt particularly pissy. He hadn't counted on Sakura stomping out, barely remembering to say goodbye to Yamanaka Inoichi, a mildly bewildered Sasuke trailing after her.

"Sakura...?"

"He refused my letter. He REFUSED my letter. He said if I wasn't about to stop hiding and come back home, he wasn't about to read my _apology_. MY WHAT!"

"Your letter?" he repeated, blinking owlishly. Who -- oh. Her father. "You wrote to him?" He winced -- that was, after all exactly what she had just said.

She kicked the wall. Sasuke glanced at Naruto in askance; Naruto winced again. For once Sasuke was asking him what to do, and Naruto didn't know any better than he did.

"Yes! And Ino went to give it to him and he wouldn't open it or even tell her anything but, 'please convince Sakura to come home', as if... ARGH!"

Naruto wanted to tell her that maybe his father just wanted to hear it from her because he believed it felt too impersonal otherwise, like she didn't care enough, but he wasn't even sure he agreed with that reasoning himself and she would have killed him. Besides, what did he know of what was acceptable with your parents?

"I just -- I mean -- ARGH! It's just so. So. ARGH!"

"You said that already," Sasuke commented dryly, eyeing her critically.

Sakura whirled around, and for a second Naruto thought she was actually going to hit her precious Sasuke-kun over the head. Sasuke looked bewildered enough by her reaction to forget to dodge. Before either of them could say or do something they would regret, Naruto jumped on his feet and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Sakura-chan, babe, breathe. Okay?"

She snarled at him. "I don't want to breathe, I want -- I want--!"

"To beat on something until it breaks into tiny little pieces, which you can then stomp into the ground. Don't you?" he replied, before she could find her words.

"YES!"

She was fuming, her green eyes throwing murderous glares around. She pulled away from him, pacing, raking her hands in her hair carelessly. She was flushed, disheveled and absolutely furious, and he reminded himself that it was a very bad moment to kiss her.

He glanced at Sasuke, smiled at him in a I've-got-everything-under-control way -- the bastard had the gall to look _wary _-- and put his hands on his hips decisively. "Good. I've got exactly what you need."

She paused, and looked at him with narrowed eyes. Behind her, Sasuke was arching an eyebrow. Good; they were intrigued. He grinned confidently.

"Come on. Let's spar."

* * *

_/Huh. Maybe your pink slut is not as ill-suited as I thought./_

Naruto was too tired to comment about the demon's vocabulary. He just groaned softly, leaning forward to rest his hands on his knees.

_'Glad she meets your approval. Now heal me up a little.'_

The fox was smirking, he could feel it. _/Weak. Beaten by his own female./_

_'Oi! She hasn't beaten me! I'm just letting her vent, that's all. Fuck, I didn't remember she could be so vicious.'_

Though the strength levels were nothing alike, it was, in fact, quite reminiscent of his fights against Sasuke, if only for the sheer aggressiveness. Of course, she didn't have a varied array of taijutsu skills, so she was confined to some pretty basic moves, but she used those basic moves with such fury ...

_'If only she had more power, she'd be...'_ She'd be close to their level, he and Sasuke. But she wasn't, and would probably never be. Her chakra reserves were low; she had almost no strength and no stamina compared to the two of them. It wasn't really her fault. They were both freaks, each in his own way. For a normal, not-demon-possessed, not-from-a-bloodline-clan human, though, she really wasn't that horribly bad.

_'She'd be...'_

_/Fuckable./_

_'Yeah-- wait, no, that wasn't what I was going to say! I was going to say --'_

He was knocked on his ass and ended up staring dumbly up at Sasuke. The black-haired ninja was standing with his back to him, a hand wrapped around Sakura's fist.

"Dodge, dumbass. Or get out of the playground."

Sakura gritted her teeth, and pulled her fist free. Her knuckles were bruised. Naruto made a note to buy her gloves; maybe they'd help.

"Sasuke-kun, you're still hurt," she said through clenched jaws. She was trying to soften her expression, but it didn't really work. Naruto wondered if she'd ever given that sort of I-AM-trying-to-be-patient-here-so-god-help-me look to Sasuke before; the blond sure had gotten his share of them.

"Not enough for it to matter," Sasuke sneered back, and even unable to see his face, Naruto knew that the son of a bitch was smirking, with that smug, mocking, superior smile that never failed to make Naruto want to...

THWACK.

...yeah, just that. Naruto cringed, rolling away as they flew over his head, Sasuke thrown back and Sakura jumping after him. He watched them worriedly for a few seconds, as Sasuke twisted to land on his feet -- god, how did the crazy fucker keep from breaking his still healing ribs? -- even as Sakura pounced again. He didn't like the idea of them both sparring; Sasuke was a naturally vicious fighter who hated to lose -- what would happen if she managed to graze him and he instinctively counterattacked? And Sakura needed to hit something, not to have the bastard run circles around her without letting her land a hit.

_/Feisty.../ _

Naruto grimaced and pretended he wasn't blushing. The scenarios the bastard fox was sending over were quite explicit. Graphic, even. A bit too much -- Kyuubi's tastes ran to more blood than Naruto thought healthy, but he couldn't deny that there was something oddly compelling about ... gah. No, there wasn't. _'Cut it out, hornball. I thought it was bestiality to you.'_

_/Seventeen years of not getting any. Even that goddamn pipe-smoking toad of yours is starting to look good. Besides.../_

The image of a pink vixen was rather ridiculous, but there was something in the dainty, delicate paws, the slim and graceful body and the long, silky-soft, fluffy tail -- ack. He was so not thinking about a black, three-tailed fox either, with corded muscles rolling under tousled, midnight fur. He was NOT. _'Stop iiiiiiiit...'_

"LOOK OUT!"

Sakura rolled through the space on which he'd been standing just a second before, kicking up a cloud of dust on her way, and immediately jumped back up. She thwapped him over the head in passing, throwing herself back at Sasuke.

Naruto rubbed his head and scowled at her back for a second, then chuckled ruefully. For once, he was thinking too much. He made himself watch instead.

He was glad to see that she wasn't using as much anymore the straightforward, "let's bulldoze our way through the enemy's defenses" way which worked so well for Naruto himself but didn't do much for someone of her body weight and strength, and was instead starting to feint and use a few swapping jutsu. He was also glad to see that Sasuke was, so far, managing to keep a balance, not so fast and strong that she couldn't connect at all, but not so slow that she felt like he was throwing it because she didn't deserve a real match.

Though, in all honesty... well. Watching Sasuke's effortless taijutsu was a lot like watching a dance -- he had perfect control, not only of his body, but of Sakura's as well. Even when he didn't manipulate her so that she would attack exactly the way he needed her to so he could counterattack, he always responded to her kicks and punches and lunges as if the two of them had been working on the choreography for months. And he wasn't even using the Sharingan.

Bastard was pretty hot, Naruto admitted to himself as he watched him do a backflip as effortlessly as if obeying the laws of gravity was beneath him. He wasn't graceful in the way Sakura was, but he flowed from attack to defense so flawlessly, and there wasn't one unnecessary move in his kata. It made Naruto wonder what it would take to make him jerk and twitch and struggle mindlessly.

He guessed he should feel more worried about the sad state of his heterosexuality as of late, but then, the thought of most every other guy still made him grimace. Sasuke was an exception -- both because he was almost as pretty as a girl anyway, and because he belonged to Naruto in the first place. Naruto wasn't sure what he'd do if Sasuke actually tried to top him in bed, though.

Sasuke still wasn't as hot as Sakura, the blond decided as he watched her flushed cheeks, furious eyes and heaving chest. She had unzipped her tunic slightly at some point. Mm, cleavage. It was a shame that she was so self-conscious about her breasts -- it was his guess that she'd been told she was too flat to be sexy many times by her girlfriends -- but maybe with the pregnancy... heavy breasts, belly full with a child that may be his...

Okay, maybe he should join them before he embarrassed himself by popping a boner.

"Yo."

"GYAH!"

Kakashi was leaning over his shoulder, watching Sasuke and Sakura. The man gave Naruto a glance and one of his weird eye-smiles -- Naruto had a theory that the rest of his face was actually perpetually frozen and thus all his facial expressions were eye-expressions only, but then he had lots of theories about Kakashi's face -- and went back to watching, nodding approvingly.

"Hm, I do think he's actually teaching her a few tricks. Amazing."

Naruto grinned. "Yeah. If I had known some shagging would..."

"Naruto, so long as your teamwork's improving, I don't actually want to know _how_ you improve it."

Naruto's grin widened. "I know."

"... Brat."

The blond chuckled, and waved at Sakura who was glancing back at them to see what he'd been yelling for. "If I wasn't, you'd be bored."

Kakashi rolled his eyes -- eye? -- but Naruto had a feeling he was amused. It felt good. For so long his teacher hadn't really paid close attention to him; any sign that Kakashi actually liked him, even a little, always made Naruto content, like an unexpected present. He didn't really _need_ the man's approval anymore, not like he had needed it when he'd been twelve, and it actually helped, because it made him glad when he got it and he didn't bother feeling slighted when he didn't. Naruto had other people to love him unconditionally now. It was okay that Kakashi-sensei would never, as Iruka and Jiraiya had, go from teacher to father figure. The blond guessed that Kakashi had his emotionally stunted hands full with Sasuke's emo self anyway.

They watched as the sparring bout relaxed into a teaching session. Sasuke guided Sakura's arms, her posture, showed her how and where to strike. He looked serious and concentrated -- as if he didn't notice he had his hands all over her. Sakura was starting to blush, which meant that she did, but she followed his instructions with the same concentration echoing on her features. Naruto wanted to tackle them both and kiss them breathless. But, yeah, Kakashi-sensei.

"Hey, what are you doing here? I thought we weren't supposed to meet before Monday."

Kakashi shrugged. "You always complain I'm late. You should be happy."

"... Did you take bullshitting classes or does it come naturally?" Naruto asked with a cheeky grin, before sobering up. "Seriously... is there a problem?"

Kakashi actually looked at him this time. "No, not really. I was just walking past."

Translation, I wanted to check on you all so I followed you out here. Naruto was fluent in strong-and-silent-ese by now.

"Sakura's staying with Ino," he commented. It sounded almost random if you didn't know he was answering a question Kakashi would never stoop so low as to ask. "And Sasuke's place is really cramped with the two of us. Maybe you'll be lucky and we'll kill each other before the end of the week."

Kakashi eye-grinned innocently. "Ah, don't say that as if I wouldn't miss you two." Before Naruto could formulate a sufficiently sarcastically disbelieving answer, the man had teleported to a pole close to where Sasuke was showing Sakura a particularly vicious heel-strike. Rolling his eyes and laughing at the same time, Naruto started jogging to join the little group.

"Say, Sasuke, have you ever thought of becoming a teacher?" Kakashi was drawling as Naruto reached them.

Sasuke's face was so funny, Naruto had to bite his cheek to keep from laughing. It was a mix of "gnhuh?", "ick, no way in hell!" and "how am I going to get rid of him?" Even Sakura was grimacing at the thought.

Sakura was trying to cover up how badly she was panting, but Naruto had a close eye on her chest -- uh, on _her_, and he could tell that she wanted to sit down pretty badly. She was sweaty and streaked with dirt, and she looked tired enough to finally let go of her anger. Naruto wanted her to laugh a little, so he took the most sadistic-glee expression he could muster up, and tried to imitate Sasuke's clipped tones and hoped she didn't jump to the bastard's defense. "This would be the best job ever. I know so many places to hide the little pests' bodies."

He evaded a slap to the head from the bastard, laughing, then forced his face to freeze in another, forbidding Sasuke-expression. "Water-walking is the easiest thing on earth, even for morons like yourselves. If Masao can't manage it, he deserves to drown."

Sakura let out a giggle, that she muffled quickly with an apologetic look at Sasuke. Sasuke gave him a dark glare, and Naruto wisely jumped behind Kakashi who was pretending not to hear or see anything at all.

"Keiko, if you can't master enough subtlety to ogle my ass without my noticing, then I'm certainly not going to pass you on your stealth test."

Sakura was turning red with the effort she made not to laugh too loudly, and even Kakashi was looking suspiciously amused. Naruto gave himself a mental pat on the back.

Sasuke paused, gave him a narrow-eyed glare, and then he smirked. "We'll be learning how to throw kunai today. There's Naruto. Go for it."

Naruto snickered, and emerged from his hiding place. "I'm sure you would, too. Bastard."

Sakura sat down heavily, hands wrapped around her waist as she laughed hard enough to make tears gather on her eyelashes. "Oh, god. The -- the poor children -- the trauma -- worse than Kakashi-sensei--"

"Oi," their teacher shot back, pretending to feel hurt.

Sakura was laughing so hard, it worried Naruto a little. It hadn't been _that _funny. He went to her and sat on his heels at her side, touching her shoulder gently. She crumpled against his shoulder, still giggling herself breathless.

"Sorry... sorry... I'm just tired, that's all... But -- god, Sasuke-kun with students!"

He patted her back gently, grinning. "Hell yeah. Sasuke in charge of kids? I'm terrified just to think of it."

He realized what he'd just said when Sasuke turned away, back stiff, and moved to leave.

Letting him leave would be a bad, bad idea -- when Sasuke was allowed to sulk, he tended to pick at whatever had hurt him until the sting changed into a festering wound. Naruto lunged, snagging his waistband, and pulled him back sharply.

Sasuke landed on his lap, and immediately twisted free, a knee in the dirt, between Naruto and Sakura. He was about to jump on his feet, eyes blazing, when Sakura touched his arm, giving him a pleading look. He paused just long enough for Naruto to sling an arm around his shoulders and give him a quick, awkward -- and still manly! -- hug.

"Hey, don't sulk. We didn't mean it like that. You know we love you."

He'd meant to say that casually, as a joke almost, but somehow seeing the way Sakura's cheeks pinked and Sasuke stilled so totally, to them it had probably sounded a lot more... declaration-y. He almost started gibbering that he hadn't meant it like that, and then -- watching Sakura's head bowed in a mix between a nod and an attempt to hide behind her hair, and Sasuke's mildly stunned look -- decided that he did mean it, even if he hadn't planned to actually say it out loud right then, especially not with Kakashi so close.

He wasn't going to take it back. But he wasn't going to let the situation slide into shy-and-stuttering romance, so he grinned and let Sasuke go.

Kakashi was still perched on his pole, his back to them as he observed a flight of birds with rapt attention. "Fascinating, these little balls of feathers. I'm pretty sure the flight of this one just drew the kanji for shoe. I wonder what it's trying to tell us."

Sasuke rolled his eyes as he straightened up, which relaxed Naruto enough to let him snort at his teacher's weirdness. "Our next mission will involve a lost slipper, probably," the blond chirped very seriously.

"Or someone will throw a boot at your head," Sakura replied, managing a reasonable facsimile of a teasing smile.

Sasuke grunted in annoyance, arms crossed. "Or I'll kick both your asses for being stupid. Sakura, can you still train, or do you want to stop for today?"

She fidgeted, wilting under Sasuke's abrupt tone. "Well... It's around noon, so maybe we should eat first and -- I mean, if it's not a problem, this afternoon...?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Fine." He still sounded miffed, though, and didn't wait for them as he stalked off toward the village. Sakura gave his retreating back a miserable look.

Naruto threw a rock at him, that the bastard dodged without even looking back, then pulled Sakura on her feet. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, d'you want--"

"It's about time for my meeting with Hokage-sama," the man replied cheerfully.

"About time -- do you mean that you had to be there at ten?"

"Nine. See you Monday." And with that, Kakashi teleported away.

Naruto rolled his eyes, wondering why he had bothered to ask. Kakashi never socialized with them. Maybe he was afraid to let them grow too close, or maybe they just tired him out enough during missions. Or maybe he was being thoughtful by refusing to intrude -- nah.

Sasuke wasn't openly waiting for them, but he walked so slowly he might as well have been.

"Hey, you think he'll ever stop wanting to save face so obsessively?" Naruto whispered at Sakura.

She was a bit quiet; he wasn't sure why. Maybe she was just tired...

"He wouldn't be Sasuke if he didn't," she replied, and smiled, but Naruto caught the worried glance at Sasuke's back and frowned.

"Whassamatter, Sakura-chan? He's not still angry about the teacher thing, he's just pretending to."

"I know, it's just --" She bit her lip, and looked at her feet. "He called me stupid. He never calls me stupid usually."

Naruto blinked. She must be really worn out if she was so oversensitive. "He calls me stupid all the time. I'm pretty sure it's Sasuke-ese for 'sexy, adorable person that I'd love to boink.' I mean, honestly, half the time when he says that, he ends up tackling me."

Sakura made a little sound halfway between choking and snickering. Naruto grinned and continued.

"And when he says 'shut up', what he really means is 'I want to silence you with my tongue'."

"Oh, a little bit like 'that was childish' means 'I've never seen anything so hilarious in my life'?" she replied tentatively, smiling at him -- and her smile was sincere and it was all for him, and he wanted to kiss her pretty badly, but he hesitated and the moment passed.

"Well, it's more something like, 'gosh, Naruto, I wish I'd thought of that myself; you're a true genius!' but yeah, you're getting the hang of it."

Catching the end of their conversation, Sasuke looked at them over his shoulder, arching a sarcastic eyebrow. "You, a genius? You're the king of all things stupid."

He turned away again, and Naruto winced comically for Sakura. It had been fun, but Sasuke hated to be teased and hated it even more when it was behind his back. But at least Sakura-chan hadn't hit him for badmouthing the bastard -- he'd made her laugh!-- so Naruto was very glad.

He was about to reach Sasuke when Sakura nudged him, a weird glint in her eyes, and mouthed silently at him, "I think he just asked you to marry him."

A flock of birds took off, scared away by Naruto's howls of laughter.

* * *

"Yo, Iruka-sensei!"

Naruto slipped in his usual seat at Ichiraku's, grinning. He had washed up quickly after the afternoon's three-way sparring session, and his hair was still dripping water over his shirt. He didn't like being late to their weekly meetings, though. It would dry on its own.

"Hello, Naruto. Did you lose track of the time again?" Iruka asked, giving his hair an amused glance.

The old cook put a bowl down in front of him, not bothering to ask what he wanted since he always asked for the same, and Naruto gave him a grateful grin before starting to dig in. "Ehh, yeah, a little. We were sparring, with Sasuke and Sakura-chan."

Iruka blinked. "I wasn't aware that you sparred with Sakura-kun. She was a bright student, but not really in your league..."

"Well, usually I don't, but she needed it pretty bad. She was pissed. Besides, I think she's starting to really not like needing to be saved. Been a while since we fought anyone that strong, but -- eh." He knew it would happen anyway; Sasuke and him were freak magnets and she would get pulled along for a ride whether they wanted it or not.

"Yes, trouble does tend to find you, doesn't it?"

Naruto gave Iruka a suspicious look. "What does that mean?"

The man gave him an innocent look that seemed way too natural on his face. Naruto had known Iruka long enough to realize that appearing clueless and harmless was the best ninja technique in his old teacher's repertoire. "Merely that trouble tends to find you. What did you think I mean?"

"... right. Anyway -- how are you?"

They started chatting about Iruka's students, especially about a few of them that seemed to want to compete with Naruto for the title of most aggravating student ever, and that quickly slipped into reminiscing about the good old days. It was always amusing to Naruto ; he was seventeen and he talked of himself at eleven as if it had been decades ago. But he truly had changed in that time, and Iruka had been with him every step of the way.

And now Naruto was taking another step, and he hoped -- well he was pretty sure, but he was still a bit nervous -- that Iruka would stay by his side anyway.

"Say, Iruka-sensei... did you learn anything else about the incident the other day?"

The man blinked slowly, and shook his head, his expression turning more serious. "Not really. You look fine, you and your team, and I don't have the clearance to demand more information. Being in the right place at the right time to catch a few snippets of conversation is one thing, but actively trying to pry into an operation of that size... Well."

Naruto toyed with his chopsticks for a few seconds as he was reminded that despite the large number of people involved in the latest Kyuubi scare, only a handful of them had been briefed about the details. "... Wanna know?"

"If you want to tell me." The reply was cautious, tinged as always with a hint of worry.

"We should go somewhere else." Naruto finished his fourth bowl of ramen and put it down on the counter, paying the old ramen guy before Iruka could protest that he was buying. He then pulled his ex-teacher off his stool and down the street, guiding him to one of the training grounds behind the academy. It was deserted this day of the week, especially at this hour.

Iruka listened with a worried frown on his face as Naruto summarized everything that had happened -- well not _everything_ everything, because his head would probably explode if Naruto gave too many details about the night itself -- but everything about the heat and the child and the sharing.

"Okay. So you are having a child. Together. And Kyuubi no Youko is involved. And the Council is watching you. God, you really know how to make your life interesting!"

"Hehe. Guess so," Naruto replied, grinning.

"In Snow country, they believe that 'may your life be interesting' is one of the most powerful curses ever thought up," Iruka snarked back.

"...Oi."

Iruka took a deep breath, then nodded, more to himself than to Naruto.

"Okay. You're... You talked about this? The three of you -- you thought about it? You're committed to the idea?"

Naruto sobered up, and nodded. "Yeah. We talked. We really want to make this work."

"It's important for you, isn't it?" Iruka asked, voice softening.

"Yes... it is. They are."

Iruka still seemed faintly worried, but he smiled anyway. "Then... if you need my help, I'll be here."

Naruto grinned, relieved, and grateful that his ex-teacher hadn't bothered to lecture him about how difficult and complicated the whole situation could get.

"So. Er."

"You can ask questions, you know," Naruto offered. "I won't get angry. I mean -- you have the right to know. Anything."

"Anything?" his ex-teacher replied, arching an eyebrow. He looked surprised and embarrassed and touched and amused, all at once, and Naruto wondered how complex his brain had to be to handle so many different feelings at the same time. It was always amusing to try to figure out which side was going to take over, though.

Naruto grinned. "Yeah, anything, 'cause I'm pretty sure you'll die before you ask anything about my sex life and it's the only thing Sakura and Sasuke would have a problem with me babbling out."

Iruka grumbled. "I should ask, just to show you how stupid it is to promise so much."

Naruto snickered. "Do you want to start with Sasuke's kinks or Sakura's interesting physical attributes?"

"MOVING ON. There's one thing I've been thinking about... It's -- well, Kyuubi no Youko is male, right?"

"Iruka-sensei, you filthy pervert!" Naruto gasped out between two giggles.

Okay, he had deserved that bonk over the head. But it was a small price to pay to see Iruka torn between embarrassment, anger and mad laughter.

"So, is he?" Iruka asked when he managed to regain his composure, crossing his arms sternly and pretending he wasn't still trying to keep the corners of his mouth down.

The use of the teacher-voice prompted Naruto to actually think about it. "Well, uh. Yeah. I always assumed he was, anyway. I mean he definitely knows what to do with my -- I mean. Yeah."

"So then how did he get into heat!" Iruka retorted, and started pacing in frustration. "Females are supposed to go into heat, not males -- it's not different for foxes, I know that -- okay, male deer and hares go into rut, but canines only react to females' heat, and maybe it's different for kitsune but I don't see why it would, the biological imperatives are probably the same -- damn these idiots who thought burning all the information available on kitsune might negate everything the Kyuubi ever did... Anyway how would he come into actual mating drive? Most predatory mammalian males don't go through any sort of reproductive cycle..."

"Uh." Naruto stared at his teacher, bemused. THAT was his all-important question? "I dunno. Maybe he was just getting blue balls or something."

Iruka gave him a frustrated look. "But that's --"

"Look, I'm not waking him up just so I can ask him if his balls always existed only in his imagination. You're just gonna have to live with the mystery."

"But don't you even care?" Iruka asked. Naruto wondered how his ex-teacher could have forgotten how little like a scholar he was.

Naruto shrugged. "Biologically possible or not, I know what happened. Wanted it bad, managed to make them want it too. Lots of kinky sex. Baby. None of that's going to change if it happened 'cause kitsune are weirdly fucked up like that or if it happened 'cause Kyuubi's actually a transsexual. So no, I don't really care."

Iruka rolled his eyes and sighed with exasperated fondness. "Right. Well, that's certainly a very practical attitude. But if you understood how he works better..."

Naruto sighed. They were going into territory he didn't like to think about, much less worry other people with. "... Iruka-sensei, when I think about him or at him too much, I tend to spend the next nights running around on all fours and hunting stray dogs. If it's not very important, I'm not going to bother. And if it turns out to be important -- well, I have you and Sakura-chan to do the research for me, right?" he added, grinning impudently.

Iruka sighed again, then nodded. "I wish you weren't so lazy, though. You're best suited to know what to look for and where, after all."

"But I'm not smart enough to do anything with the inside tips, so... Heh. Anyway I expect Sakura-chan will grill me about lots of stuff. She's kinda concerned about what it might do to the kid."

"Hm, yes," Iruka agreed. "And what about her? Will it have any effect on her?"

"Uh. Dunno."

But that, contrary to the state of Kyuubi's manhood, was definitely something he should find out. Because having abnormal chakra from birth was different from having it shoved at you when you were already almost an adult, and maybe ... well, he definitely should find out. They already knew it was doing strange things to her chakra coils, and she wasn't going to be happy for the next nine months, but he didn't know if anything more... permanent could happen. There was a difference between being nauseous for a few months, and being crippled for life -- or made sterile -- or even _die_ -- because the child had claws in the womb, or the chakra drain was just so severe it never let her heal. And seeing as her being at risk was definitely his fault, yes, he definitely had to find a way to fix it.

Iruka had to slap Naruto over the head before he remembered where he was. Grinning sheepishly, he made a note to himself to figure it out as soon as he was home, and brought up what he knew was a sure fire way to change the conversation.

The sad state of the Hokage's sex life.

* * *

The end was not that funny, but then I was reaching the end of my rope there. That chapter refused to end properly. Argh.

More notes (copied from the teamwork drabbles) : I'm almost positive Iruka calls Sakura "Sakura-kun" in canon. As far as I know, that's not because he thinks she's a guy; that's because he acknowledges that she's young and way under him in hierarchy (this not a -san yet), but still not intimately close, like family or lovers would be. Yes, it IS a real use of -kun, though not as frequent by far. It shows respect to her anyway, but not as it would to an equal. So it wouldn't be out of place for a student/teacher relationship. That was today's lesson in fangirl Japanese. Yay. XD


	4. Sakura : Long Day

People, if you want to warn me that I'm writing OOC!Naruto: THINK OF TELLING ME _WHERE_ HE'S OOC AND _WHY _YOU THINK SO. I'm tired of offhand comments about how he's ooc, but no one bothers to tell me if they think that because he's too mature (well duh, he's 17 here, not 12) or because he's not uke and shy and sobbing enough (wtf, are we reading the same manga?), or if it's something else, something that's honestly a problem. Just mentioning it in passing doesn't help me at all. At first it only made me paranoid; now I'm starting to get all "meh..." about it. Justify a bit, please. At least give me a hint; I know i'm utterly amazing, but I'm not psychic yet.

Beta: Sarolynne. READ HER STUFF. Hungover!Tsunade courtesy of Cinaril Alaron. :loves on:

Also: EEEE KISSIES.

**Chapter 4 : Long Day (so don't bitch about how it took me ages to get it done XD)**

**(Sakura)**

Sakura started the day like she had started the previous one, and the one before that : kneeling on the bathroom floor as she emptied her stomach. The tiles were hard and cold under her bare knees, and the large t-shirt she was using as a nightdress was too thin to help much.

Behind her, Ino was wincing, as much in sympathy as in disgust. She stepped closer, combing her own messy locks sleepily. "Are you done?"

Sakura dry-heaved a last time and then sat back on the floor, blearily looking up. "Now, yes," she grunted as she accepted the glass of water Ino held out. She rinsed her mouth and spat inelegantly in the toilet, grimacing.

"How long has it been?"

"... One week."

"... Well. Crap. It's already that bad? You should go to a doctor, you're not going to ride this out."

Sakura winced. "Yes, well, it's kind of linked to that problem with Naruto having kids that I can't explain, so if I want anything for it, I'll have to go to the Hokage..."

Ino scowled. "I see. Well, you better get an appointment as fast as possible, the way it's going..."

"I know," Sakura sighed, and opened the faucet to wash her face. She sighed again, then, catching sight of Ino in the mirror, snickered weakly. "Your hair looks like a windblown straw pile."

"Yours looks like cotton candy that has exploded all over a bird's nest."

"Yeah, well, you have big ugly shadows under your eyes!" she shot back with a bit more strength, fighting Ino for the hairbrush.

"And you're still yucky and green ! Did anyone tell you it was a good idea to match with your eye color? Because they lied!"

"Better than being the color of a pig butt!"

Snarking at each other playfully, they went through their morning routine, until Ino's mother interrupted them by knocking at the bathroom door and yelling at them to keep it down.

The first time Ino's mom had yelled at them, years ago, Sakura had frozen, and then exploded in embarrassed apologies. Nowadays, she was familiar enough with the Yamanakas to throw in a quick "sorry!" before Ino started yelling back. She knew the difference between angry yelling and yelling just for the hell of it, which they did a lot of. So long as no weapons showed up, it was harmless. It still seemed weird to her, but it was part of who Ino was.

She almost never invited Ino home overnight, though, because while Ino never yelled like that with anyone else, and Sakura's own parents never said anything, she had a feeling they found her best friend somewhat badly raised.

"Yeah, yeah," Ino finally capitulated when she was done brushing her teeth, and shoved Sakura out of the bathroom with her hip. "Hold your horses, your majesty. Here's your bathroom."

Sakura gave the graying woman a sheepish wince/smile along with a little greeting wave as Ino pushed her down the corridor and into her bedroom.

"So," the blonde said as she disappeared in her walk-in closet. "I need to be at the shop at noon. Dad's leaving for a mission this afternoon, and mom just got back from hers, so she needs downtime. You want to go see the Hokage this morning?"

Sakura hesitated. She didn't feel that sick, really -- she could endure it, she... _/We are NOT going to be masochistic about it./_

"Okay, fine." No need to wait too long. Tsunade-sama had told her to come back whenever she needed it, and while she could endure the morning sickness a little while longer, she wasn't going to spit on an occasion to get rid of it either, as much like whining as it seemed to her.

She found the last of her fresh clothes -- maybe Sasuke would let her wash her clothes at his place; she hadn't brought enough to last her much longer and she didn't feel right invading the Yamanakas so much -- then followed Ino to the kitchen.

Inoshi had left a few hours earlier, and his wife would be in the bathroom for an hour at least, so there was no chance to cross either of them. Sakura sat down heavily and slumped gracelessly on the tabletop. She always made an effort to appear extra-polite around the Yamanakas, because after all they were housing her and feeding her, against her parents' wishes, and that was very generous of them, but right now all she wanted was to be comatose a little while longer. She still felt queasy and off-kilter; from what had happened the days before, it would be at least a half-hour before that went away.

"Cocoa?" Ino asked brightly as she puttered around the kitchen.

"Urgh, no. I'd throw up again."

"Or maybe some nice greasy eggs and --"

"Finish that sentence and you'll be wearing them, Ino-pig," Sakura growled, resting her chin on her crossed arms.

The blonde laughed, and put a piece of toast on the table in front of her. "Here, eat that."

Sakura nibbled on the toast cautiously. It didn't make her want to throw up, so she ate more.

"Plans for the day?" Ino asked as she sat in front of Sakura.

"Well, Hokage-sama first, then... it depends how long it takes, but I was thinking, tomorrow we go back to missions, so I really should see my father today," she explained unenthusiastically.

Ino winced. "Guess so. Dangerous missions?"

"I don't know yet, but probably not. After the... incident, they're not going to give us anything exciting for a while." And while she didn't truly mind C-rank missions, with moderate danger and action, D-rank were boring and tedious most of the time. B and above... well, she didn't especially like them, but Naruto and Sasuke thrived on them. They'd probably be even more peeved than her. So long as she could convince herself that she was useful, she could endure almost anything, but they got bored when they didn't have anything to beat up, and when they got bored, they usually started to fight each other.

"Assuming you're in Konoha, you'll still be coming back here to sleep?"

"If we're in Konoha, then yes," she replied with a sheepish smile, "unless it bothers your parents..."

"Dad won't be here, and mom won't notice. She'll be locked in all afternoon. You have a key, right?"

Sakura nodded, feeling the key in her pocket. She could have disabled the locks on her own; as a friend of Ino's she had seen their anti-intruders traps more than once... but the key meant something a lot more special.

"Unless you prefer to spend the night with your men..." Ino added, leering.

Ino knew that she couldn't, she just wanted to tease her. Bah! Sakura wasn't about to blush and squirm. "Heck no," Sakura replied, grinning, and only blushing a little. "Naruto drools and Sasuke steals the blankets."

"I see. So they're only nice to ... _sleep _with," the blonde replied, nodding and only smirking a tiny bit. "Say, you still haven't told me how they are in bed..."

"And I'm not going to."

"Okay, then."

Sakura blinked. Ino was capitulating already? Huh.

"I'll ask Naruto. I'm sure he'll tell me everything I want to know."

"Hey!"

* * *

Ino walked with her to the administrative building, but then had to return to the shop; her father's shift would be ending soon. Sakura assured her that she would be fine. It was just a check-up. The most horrifying news had been delivered already; she didn't see what else could happen. 

She stepped inside, and looked around for someone to direct her. She was stepping toward a chuunin guard when she heard hurried steps behind her.

"Ahh! Get out of the way!"

Someone bumped into her. Surprised, Sakura turned just in time to grab a half-dozen of books as they fell from the pile in the Hokage's assistant's arms.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

"Hello, Shizune-sensei," Sakura smiled.

The brunette blinked, then gave her a faint sheepish smile and moved the pile of books to her hip to rest her arm. "Ah, Sakura-kun. Hello. Are you here to see the Hokage?"

"Well, yes. She said to come whenever I needed it, but --"

Shizune smiled reassuringly. "Trust me, if it's about you know what, she'll mind it a lot more if you _don't _come. I'm sorry again..."

"It's fine, really," Sakura assured her sincerely.

Sakura rather liked Shizune. The young woman seemed shy and unassertive at first glance, but it was offset by a fierce loyalty to the Hokage and more than a handful of vicious tricks that made Sakura wish she had started studying under her earlier; Shizune had ways to use plants and senbon and all other sorts of apparently inoffensive things that would have made most of Sakura's chakra-laden enemies run in fear. It was her example that made Sakura hope that even if she never got to be overwhelmingly strong or powerful, one day, she would be tricky enough and savvy enough in the human body, healing techniques and poisons that she could finally do her fair share of the fighting in their team. After all, for a healer to heal well, they had to know exactly how and where the trauma was applied.

The apprenticeship under Shizune had taught her a lot, even though she wished she hadn't had to share her attention with three other students, and wished even more that Shizune hadn't had to stop a few months ago because it was interfering with her duties to the Hokage. Sakura was now on work placement at the hospital between missions, but it wasn't the same.

"Come along, then; I was going to her office anyway."

Sakura took a few more books off the pile and followed her.

The Hokage was crushing leaves and a few berries Sakura couldn't name in a thick paste when Shizune nudged the door open with her foot. Sakura was mildly surprised -- she'd assumed that the Hokage would be neck-deep into treatises and scrolls, not busy doing medical stuff. But then, she supposed, Tsunade-sama had been a med-nin long before getting her current responsibilities.

"Hokage-sama, hello..." she greeted politely, nodding as she followed Shizune in, closing the door behind her with her heel.

"Ah, it's you." Tsunade gave Sakura a sharp look, and Sakura refrained from wincing as she went to pile the books where Shizune had put her own stack. She hadn't done anything wrong, but the Hokage was still a formidable woman, and she didn't look very happy today, if one judged by her semi-permanent frown. "A problem?"

Were Hokage-sama's eyes bloodshot? And her voice definitely sounded rough, thick with fatigue. Maybe she had stayed up all night on important things. _/So stop dithering and tell her why you're here, for fuck's sake! If you antagonize her with small talk, she'll probably bitchslap you into a wall or something./_

Sakura didn't think she actually would, but earning her displeasure was still something she didn't wish to do. "It's the morning sickness. It's pretty bad."

"... Ah."

"I mean, it's only been a week since the conception," and it shouldn't have happened before the second week at the very least, more probably during the fourth -- she had studied the symptoms during her apprenticeship and reviewed them at Ino's, just to be sure she didn't forget anything, "but I've been sick three mornings in a row now."

Tsunade frowned as she finished crushing her concoction and gave the bowl to Shizune. "That's not normal," she commented as she got on her feet. Then, probably seeing Sakura's expression, she amended. "But then you probably won't see a lot of normal with this one."

Weirdly, it didn't really help. Sakura followed the older woman to a partitioned side of the office, trying not to grimace at the reminder. She told herself that her feeling of queasiness was coming from the smell of the herbs Shizune was crushing, but she didn't really believe herself.

"Step in the circle," Tsunade ordered as she pointed at a seal mark on the floor. Sakura recognized a few key symbols -- that was a diagnosis pattern, apparently, but more complex than the simple ones Shizune had taught her.

At first, she didn't say anything, just let the Hokage examine whatever it was she saw from the outside of the circle. But the gritting of teeth and the annoyed frowns ended up getting to her composure. She didn't say anything, but her stress must have been blindingly obvious through the jutsu. Tsunade looked up at her, meeting her eyes, and stared at her for the longest seconds of Sakura's life. It was as if she was trying to read her brain.

"You can take some brutal honesty, don't you?"

Sakura looked back at her, eyes widening faintly. Oh god. "... I can," she blurted out before she could think better of it.

"The way things are going, my best guess is that you're going to die of chakra exhaustion before the end of the fourth month."

Sakura just stared at her, not sure that she'd heard her right.

Tsunade sighed softly, eyes closed, then gave her a long, serious look. Sakura swallowed nervously.

"It's draining you just a little bit faster than you can reconstitute. It's not really a problem for now -- you'll just feel a little tired in the evening -- but unless one of two things happen, it's going to build up."

"Two things?" she asked, latching onto that. It wasn't hopeless -- the Hokage wouldn't let it become hopeless. She wouldn't be as brutal if there wasn't a way.

"One, we hope that the drain will slow down on its own after the first month."

Sakura grimaced. Tsunade-sama looked grim enough that she didn't need to ask how likely the Fifth thought it was, or how much they should count on that.

"Two, you train and train like crazy and hope this will be enough. I'm talking three hours of meditation a day, at least two hours of jogging, and two or three of physical fitness, hand-to-hand, water walking -- and practice your jutsus."

"Train?" That's all? she almost added. But this kind of training was going to be brutal on her. She just didn't progress all that fast.

"Train. Train a lot. Shizune told me that you have quality, but not quantity. Sadly," the older woman snapped in a stern voice, "quality won't help you here. All you need is to stuff chakra into the brat -- or better, let it stuff itself. I know you don't have a huge potential, but you're going to need to bring out every last drop of it."

Sakura looked down at her feet, at the medical pattern sprawling all around her. She'd thought that the symbols were kind of pretty. Now she could only see black lines sprawling like a net, swimming alarmingly. She blinked away the wetness. It wasn't hopeless. She couldn't start on the self-pity -- especially not here, not in front of the Hokage, the strongest person in the village.

"... I will." She lifted her chin, nodding, pretending that she didn't want to tremble. "I'll train."

Tsunade watched her, then her expression tinged with compassion. "... If that's not enough, we will still have a few recourses. I'm afraid they won't be pleasant -- being hospitalized for several months rarely is. We will need volunteers to drain chakra from, too, but this kind of transfer -- it can be done. I've done it. But it's going to require you stay flat on your back for the rest of your pregnancy, no exceptions."

Sakura winced, but relaxed a little. She'd give it her best, but it was a great relief to know that there would still be another solution to try out if it wasn't enough.

Tsunade sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose, then waved her hand dismissively. "I'll have a training regimen written for you in the next few days. Kakashi will give it to you. And eat more red meat -- at least four times a week, everyday if you can. Come see me in two weeks -- unless there's a problem. Now shoo."

Still scared and confused, she stepped out of the seal quickly, bowed swiftly and hurried out, barely remembering to nod a goodbye at Shizune on her way.

* * *

Sakura gave herself a half-hour, sitting in a public garden, to freak out over the news, then tried to put Tsunade's warnings out of her mind for the moment. She wasn't going to keel over if she didn't try training right this moment, and besides there were other things to worry about more urgently. 

She reached the building where her father worked as an accountant, and asked for him, hoping that, as always during stressing times, he was working overtime -- it was a Sunday, but that never stopped him -- and that he hadn't taken his lunch break yet. To her surprise the secretary had been warned to expect her and two minutes later she could hear her father limping down the stairs, the muffled thump of his cane echoing his steps. He still moved fairly quietly for a civilian, even with his old war injury stiffening his leg, but he hadn't been quiet enough to surprise Sakura for years now.

"Hi, dad," she greeted him with an uneasy smile. Haruno Yukihiro wasn't smiling. She thought that he looked stern, worried and reproving at once -- but then he was always hard to read. Maybe he was just worried. Or maybe just reproving.

"Sakura. I was about to get some breakfast. Come along."

His voice didn't tell her anything, nor did his attitude. She followed, composing her expression to appear appropriately serious yet confident. She didn't want to look like she could be influenced into dumping Naruto. She didn't have a clue how to approach her father, though. They didn't have the closeness that she shared with her mother.

They only exchanged a few polite words as they chose a restaurant, as he asked if she had eaten, as she asked when he needed to go back to work. Apparently he'd guessed that she would come find him today, because he'd already cleared his calendar. Well, it was convenient. And made her nervous as hell.

They sat face to face, waiting for the waiter to come back, hiding behind their menus. Sakura let the things she wanted to say build up as they tried to organize themselves into coherence, until she knew what she would say first. But she still waited, for their orders to be taken, for them to be alone again, until the silence was so heavy that they slipped out on their own.

"It was an accident, but it wasn't a mistake. I am not sorry, and I will only apologize for the way I handled the situation with you and mom."

She would have said more, but his lack of reaction was making her feel more confrontational and she didn't want a fight. She fell silent, waiting for his reply.

"... Tell me what happened first."

She couldn't help but shoot back, "I'm sure you heard everything already."

"I heard her side of the story. I want yours."

It was starting to get annoying to tell it again and again, especially since she had to tailor it to each of her audiences. But he seemed more open to dialogue now than he'd seemed when he'd sent back her unopened letter. Maybe the length of time she had gone without coming back had convinced him that it wasn't a simple tantrum.

"I was out with my team. We drank -- probably more than we should have. Kyuubi..." She paused. Her father had twitched. He recomposed himself quickly, but his jaws were slightly clenched. "Kyuubi was, apparently, in heat. Or something similar."

Yukihiro's eyebrow twitched again. She decided to attack the core of the problem directly.

"The ... pregnancy was confirmed in the following day, and is closely monitored by the Hokage. There is no way the Kyuubi can leave his host and possess the baby, and as Naruto himself is no less human than any of the advanced bloodlines, the child shouldn't have any genes that neither Naruto nor I possess."

"But you can't be sure."

"...No, I can't. But no expecting mother can be a hundred percent sure that her child will be born normal. There's always a risk."

There was still a forced lack of expression on his face as he replied. "There is a difference between having a deaf or malformed child, and having a demon."

"If I bear a demon, I will be the first to put it down. And if they notice when it's still in my womb, I will give myself over to the ANBU so they can terminate us both."

Finally, her father reacted openly, staring in horror. "Surely there is no need to go that far..."

"It's binding itself to my chakra pathways. If I abort, I'll die."

Even the waiter putting plates down in front of them couldn't manage to stop them staring bleakly at each other. Finally, he took off his glasses and looked down, starting to clean them insistently.

"... And when it's born?"

Sakura blinked. She hadn't thought that far yet. "We'll deal with it when it happens. I have faith that the Hokage will not let anything happen to me if she can help it."

"If."

"If."

There was another silence, during which Sakura politely started poking at her food so as not to stare at her father's face as he digested the information.

"That's... Rather. Serious. Rather..."

"It sounds awful, doesn't it," she replied to what he'd meant rather than what he'd said. "But it's not all horrible. There's a good chance that the baby will be as normal as they come, all cute and pink and bawling at ungodly hours of the morning. Maybe it will have mom's eyes and your nose and Naruto's smile, and then it will be the most perfect baby of the world," she added with a brave smile, blinking away the moisture in her eyes when her father conjured up a rather shaken smile.

And then she took a deep breath and continued. "... and maybe it will have your nose and mom's eyes and Sasuke's hair, and it will still be just as perfect. But probably prettier, all things considered."

She didn't look up. She couldn't. she was scared to death of what she would see.

"... Sasuke's...?" he finally asked, carefully, as if he wasn't sure he'd heard well.

"Uchiha Sasuke. My other teammate," she confirmed, as she finished tearing her napkin into shreds. "He -- they were both there. I don't know which one... Well. That's... something I didn't tell mom yet. I wanted her to accept that it's probably Naruto's child first, you see, or else she would pin all her hopes onto it being Sasuke's, and I don't want my child to be loved or hated because of its father. It's my child and I don't care to which of them it belongs, I just don't, and I don't care either --"

"Sakura. Don't shout."

The gentle admonition was enough to stop her babbling before she panicked totally and she downed her glass of water to calm her nerves, eyes closed.

"I wasn't involved with either of them. I haven't actively chased Sasuke in years and I'm sure Naruto never thought his flirting would ever lead him anywhere. I do have strong feelings for them both, but up until last week, they weren't..." She stopped there, unable to push the detachment far enough to actually use the word "sex" with her father.

"I... understand. It wasn't an easy situation, but -- Kyuubi no Youko, the alcohol -- you didn't choose to be placed in it. I won't judge you for... not knowing."

He still sounded shaken, but not doubtful at least. She was so relieved that she could have cried. She took a stuttering breath and nodded, relaxing marginally.

"But... will you judge me for choosing to stay in it?"

"Pardon?"

"We've decided -- the three of us, that -- we're a team. We'll deal with it as a team. We won't let it pull us apart. We got into it together, and they're not going to abandon me."

The silence seemed a lot heavier suddenly. Her father's glasses had never been cleaner.

"Ah. Honorable sentiment. Concretely, what does this mean?"

She fidgeted, twisting the shreds of her napkin together. "We're going to live together. The three of us. Sasuke offered to marry me, so I don't pass for a whore. And if it's his, I will be the matriarch of the reborn Uchiha clan. Not so bad, eh?" she added with a grin that she couldn't make look anything but pained.

"If it isn't?"

"Then my second child will be his," she declared as if it was obvious, as if she hadn't just decided that it would happen this way two seconds ago. "... We might wait a bit for that one, though."

"The abnormalities in your pregnancy point to... Naruto, though."

She smiled as he made himself use Naruto's first name instead of one of the numerous epithets he was known as.

"Well, yes, it looks like it at first glance, but it only indicates that... that his tenant is involved. Besides it might be an Uchiha thing, though that's not as likely."

"Perhaps," he replied diplomatically.

Yet another awkward silence passed. Sakura started poking at her food halfheartedly.

"Is there anything else?"

"... None that I can think of. I'm still at Ino's. I'll stay there until I can talk things out with mom. I don't want her to..." she shrugged, trusting her father to understand what she meant. "But eventually we plan on moving in together. We're still hammering out the details though."

He nodded, and started to move his food around, cutting it into little bite-sized chunks.

"You will bring home your... teammates for dinner one of these days," he said stiffly.

Sakura looked up, startled. "You want to meet them? For dinner?" She beamed at her father, blinking back tears quickly. Sasuke and Naruto at her parents' was a scary thought, but the mere fact that her father had offered made her breath catch in her throat. "Sure! I'll bring them," she agreed enthusiastically. _/Even if I have to knock them out and tie them up first/ _Inner Sakura added with feral determination.

Yukihiro smiled, just a tiny bit, just enough, and she had to blink quickly and look away for a second. "Mom will have to be talked into it, though. Otherwise..." She winced, imagining how excruciating it would be.

"I'll talk with her. if these boys are going to share your life, I want to know them. If only so I know which kind of drink to slip the poison in," he added, nodding wisely, perfectly deadpan.

"Dad!" she protested, and then laughed, though she wasn't sure he was entirely joking. "I'll bring them," she repeated firmly, nodding.

"Even if you have to drag them by their feet?" her father asked, still blankly polite.

"Dad! How --"

"I remember being their age. A dinner with any of my lady-friends' parents would have made me squirm rather badly."

Sakura grinned. Her father had been a heartbreaker before he settled down with her mom. "Heh. This is true. But they'll come, and I'll beat them into behaving if need be." She flinched as she heard herself; it sounded as if they were savages. "I mean, I'm sure that they will anyway, but ... well..."

Her father looked over his glasses, arching a white eyebrow. "Well?"

"Sasuke has been alone for a long time," she began cautiously.

He nodded. "That's right, but I'm sure his parents taught him excellent manners, when they were still amongst us."

_/The problem isn't so much him knowing good manners from bad as it is him deliberately pissing people off by totally ignoring them./ _Bah, she'd punch him into behaving if needed. She usually couldn't stand the very idea of hitting her Sasuke-kun, but giving her parents a bad impression was one thing he wouldn't do without receiving a swift beating for his trouble.

"Naruto... well. He never wants to be bad, but the fact is that he more or less raised himself. He always has the best of intentions, but he doesn't know a lot of social conventions. I'd trust him to execute a high-level jutsu, but not to know to put his napkin on his lap, or use the wrong fork or things like that." _/Or piss in presence of a young lady/ _Inner Sakura reminded her, flashing back to their first Chuunin exam and the few times it had happened afterwards.

Her father nodded seriously, though she could feel his amusement. "I... see. You will give him a crash course, I'm sure."

She nodded. She would give him several.

She was surprised to notice that she was done with her starter, and that the waiter was coming with the next course. She realized that the man must have waited, seeing that they were talking of unpleasant things, and gave him an embarrassed but grateful smile. Now, though, now she was ready to eat a horse.

* * *

Sasuke didn't have a problem with her using his washing machine. Nor, apparently, with her crumpling against his chest as her day finally caught up with her. Or not enough to pull away, at any rate, though she could feel how tense he was. It moved her, to know that he still allowed it, even though he hated it and probably thought that she should just suck it up. 

She didn't tell him any of it for that very reason. She needed to be a little less raw before she started to talk about it.

"Where is Naruto?" she asked.

Sasuke shrugged. "Not a clue. He won't be back before seven thirty at least."

Which gave her more reason to push it back. She didn't want to tell it twice. She smiled, stepped back, knowing that Sasuke wouldn't question her because he hated to be questioned _/and figures that we'd babble it at him if it was really serious/_, then picked up the dirty clothes she'd gotten from Ino's place after walking her father back to his office.

Well, she decided as she stared at the washing machine. Might as well start now. She left the small laundry room and asked Sasuke if he minded her using his bedroom. He frowned, then shrugged, though with some reluctance.

"I won't look at your things," she promised. He shrugged again; she decided it was good enough.

She sat against the wall, by the head of the bed, and did her best not to stare too much at Sasuke's personal stuff. Not that there were lots of it -- and was that a pair of boxers peeking out from under that chair ? And the dust bunnies. Here she had thought that Sasuke would be a cleaning freak.

_/Well, it IS a boy's room... urgh./ _With a sigh, she closed her eyes, crossed her legs and relaxed against the wall. She wasn't here to gape but to meditate.

There were two steps to her way of meditating. The first step was obtaining calm into her mind, by looking at the issues of the day objectively, reflecting on their real gravity and possible ways to solve them, and then pushing them away to worry about later. This time it wasn't as easy as usual, but eventually, she managed.

The second step was envisioning, feeling, her entire body -- relaxing as completely as possible, then concentrating on the sensations she received from one finger after the other -- then her palm, her forearm, her elbow -- traveling from shoulder to shoulder, down one arm, then up again -- then down her spine, exploring her legs the same way -- then up, belly, stomach -- navel. Then sinking past the physical, past the little aches and the weight of her clothes and the way her collar ruffled the little hairs at the back of her neck and everything else, sinking until she could feel the ebb and flow of the vital energy in her body -- following it along, to where it hit a snag, to where it went too fast, too strong, tiring her out and damaging her body -- recalibrating, rebalancing her energies, and all along, gently blowing on the glow in her belly that was the source of her chakra.

There was a spark there, a tiny tiny one that she could almost swear she was imagining, so weak it was. She stroked it in passing, and kept going, smoothing out the wrinkles in her chakra system.

She was aware of the outside world, the voices and the noises out of the window, a clock ticking in a corner, Sasuke putting away the dishes with a faint clinking noise, Naruto walking in and dropping something on the couch.

Sakura let the sound of their voices rock her, providing a familiar background as she sank deeper into her trance. They were bantering as they moved around the small apartment, Naruto's voice boisterous and friendly, Sasuke's voice sarcastic and subtly amused. The exact words escaped her, but it didn't --

"--those _panties_?"

Well, almost.

"Oi, Sasuke, you didn't tell me you had that sorta kink," Naruto hollered from the laundry room, bemused and amused at once.

Sakura opened her eyes to see Sasuke stalk by to join Naruto. She jumped on her feet and hurried after him, her serenity totally dissipated under the knowledge of what she was going to see.

Naruto, as she saw over Sasuke's shoulder, was standing by the opened machine, half the laundry already hung up -- _/what a fucking day for him to decide to be thoughtful/_ -- holding her pale blue panties out for all to see.

"They're Sakura's, you idiot!" Sasuke yelped, tearing them out of Naruto's hands.

"Whoa, any reason why you needed to wash her panties?"

Snarling, Sasuke executed a high kick that sent Naruto flying through the open window, then turned around and froze as he noticed her standing behind him. Blushing both, they avoided each other's eyes as the panties changed hands.

Naruto was climbing back over the windowsill when he saw her, and immediately attempted to protect his head. Sakura had been all ready to hit him, but, seeing him lose his balance, grabbed his collar and pulled him up, helping him through the window inside.

Of course he managed to "accidentally" trip, and stumbled right into her, forcing her to lean back on her hands as her butt bumped into the open washing machine.

"Um. Hi, babe," he attempted, a sheepish grin on his face.

Sakura growled, and would have yelled at him by pure instinct, if he hadn't chosen that moment to lean in and kiss her, managing to make it bold and slightly clumsy at the same time.

He kissed, she reflected, like he did everything else. Enthusiastically, without reserve. She was left out of breath and flushed, staring at him still leaning in with his hands on the machine around her, her lips damp and still feeling the phantom caress of his tongue between them.

"Eh. Hehe. So, um. Am I forgiven?" he asked her, grinning again, a bit more cockily this time.

She whapped him over the head, just because she didn't want him to think that kissing her like that would make her forget to be annoyed -- even though it did. And then she felt bad; hitting him had been okay before, when they were just friends and teammates, but now, she didn't know why, it felt like it should be wrong. _/Domestic abuse, anyone/_ But she wasn't beating him for real, he could take it easily, he -- argh. Okay, maybe she should try to stop that, and now she felt too guilty to still be annoyed.

"... I guess you're forgiven," she sighed, "just don't--"

"Fondle your panties when you're not inside?"

"Naruto!" she growled. Oh, he hadn't just -- grr!

Well, that was a resolution that hadn't lasted long.

"Ow!" Naruto yelped, rubbing his head, and then grinned as he danced out of reach. "Hehe. Or did you just mean, don't wave them under _Saaasuke-kun_'s nose?"

"Naruto, I'm going to kill you!" she yelled as she chased him down the corridor. He was too quick, though -- she always missed him by barely a few inches. "Sasuke-kun, stop him!"

Sasuke exited the kitchen, watched them run a few circles around the couch, expressionless, then casually stuck out his foot in Naruto's path. She smiled grimly, expressing her gratefulness, and stalked toward the blond, who was busy ranting at Sasuke.

Sasuke wasn't even listening to him. He was staring at her instead, still expressionless. She paused in her tracks, confused. The black-haired boy arched an eyebrow and gave her hand a pointed look.

She was still holding her panties. She blushed explosively and shoved them in her pocket hastily, mortified.

She saw his feet first, as he stepped toward her, and had to put all her strength of will into looking up at him. He reached for her pocket slowly, pushing a strap inside before zipping it closed, and her eyes still hadn't reached higher than his chin when he leaned in and brushed his lips against hers.

It was amazing how differently they kissed, she thought, and then wondered why she was still thinking a hundred miles a minute while Sasuke kissed her. The nerves probably. She hadn't thought so much when Naruto had kissed her earlier, but with Sasuke, she just couldn't stop. His lips weren't as full as Naruto's, and he wasn't as bold and invasive -- she had yet to feel his tongue, but there was something in that soft, cautious touch that was just -- just _more_... that made her heart jump and made her feel dizzy and fluttery and -- and why was she still comparing them instead of enjoying it anyway?

_'... where is the idiot?'_ she wondered suddenly, and opened her eyes, guilt filling her as she realized how totally she'd stopped caring the second Sasuke had leaned in.

He was watching them, a soft, almost wistful smile on his face. She reached out over Sasuke's shoulder, feeling like she'd excluded him -- and then gave Sasuke an alarmed look as she wondered if he'd felt excluded earlier. He'd been gone when Naruto had ended their kiss, after all.

Naruto took her hand and let her reel him in. Sasuke glanced back at him, expression unreadable again. She leaned against Sasuke hesitantly, not wanting him to think that she considered the both of them interchangeable, and squeezed Naruto's hand; 'I don't want you to leave.' He smiled, a soft, unguarded expression that caught her by surprise, made her tighten her hold on the two of them. Sasuke could make her heart jump anytime just by being himself, but she'd just discovered that under certain circumstances, Naruto could, too.

She rested her head on Sasuke's shoulder hesitantly, not knowing how far she could push before he started feeling invaded. Naruto stepped around him and slipped an arm around her waist, leaning against her side, his cheek against her hair. She wondered if they were looking at each other over her head, or ignoring each other, and wondered with sudden fear if she would always be the focus in their relationship, if everything would always rest on her shoulders. The responsibility scared her.

"Hey..." she started softly, nervously. "Do you guys ever... you know, kiss or anything, when I'm not here?"

She straightened up a little to look at Sasuke -- blinking, caught off guard -- and Naruto, eyebrows up to his forehead protector.

"Uh. No." Naruto gave Sasuke a cautiously curious look. Sasuke scowled and looked away.

"Why?" she asked, more casually than she felt like.

"Well, no. Just hasn't happened. Why d'you ask, wanna watch?" he replied, snickering.

"No! it's not like that. I just ... I was wondering, if you wanted to, that's all. I mean..."

she didn't know how to explain her dilemma without sounding egoistical, or how to tell them that she was scared to end up the prize in another one of their eternal competitions, without insulting them.

"I thought, that is, I assumed, that you... didn't mind each other like that," she mumbled into Sasuke's shoulder.

"I don't," Naruto replied after a little pause. "Sex is sex. Besides Sasuke's pretty."

"I'm not pretty, moron," Sasuke grumbled back, but looked away before answering her. "I... don't mind either.

Sakura had the feeling that where Naruto had honestly meant "I don't mind", Sasuke meant something closer to "I _really _don't mind."

"Then, um..."

Sasuke squirmed, as if he wanted to pull away from them. Naruto shrugged.

"She wants to see us kiss."

"I don't--!" she protested, blushing.

"Hey, it's only fair. So, bastard?"

"It's not the same," Sasuke grumbled back.

"Ah... sorry," she whispered. "How exactly? I don't want to pry, but I'm -- wondering, and..."

"... It just is," he muttered.

"Oh, what's the matter?" Naruto intervened, but he looked like he knew exactly what Sasuke meant. When the blond leaned closer, he was looking more nervous and embarrassed than he'd ever looked with her.

"You don't have to..." Her voice trailed off into stunned silence as she watched them kiss. It was awkward and stiff, and they were avoiding each other's eyes -- a feat considering how close they were. She cringed, and was about to push them apart, but they separated before she could.

"That," sneered Sasuke," was pathetic."

Naruto gave a cry of protest, and grabbed his shirt to reel him in, trapping Sakura between them. Their lips mashed together with a force that made her wince. Naruto appeared to be trying to bite Sasuke's sneer off his face; Sasuke was kissing back just as aggressively, his hand closed in a white-knuckled grip on the back of Naruto's neck. She watched, stunned, feeling their bodies tense and push against her, their muscles bulge and stiffen as if they were about to fight again.

"H-hey," she protested weakly, astonished.

They broke apart, lips puffy and bruised, tongues retreating into their respective mouths, and stood there glaring at each other, her still caught between them.

"... I... wonder why I'm so surprised that you kiss like you want to beat each other up instead," she sighed, shaken. "That's the way you do everything else."

Naruto laughed, though it still sounded a bit edgy. "See, that's the difference. It's like -- I'd make love with you, but I'd fuck him."

She stared at him, then at Sasuke who didn't look like he disagreed with that assessment. So they didn't feel -- they didn't ... like each other like that? They were just ... just fuckbuddies then? She didn't know if she should feel relief or worry. In the one hand they weren't about to decide that they were gay and didn't need her, but in the other hand, if she loved them and they loved her but not each other -- but the team bond and the friendship were stronger than that; it didn't matter, did it? She was so confused.

"We're guys, Sakura," Sasuke finally said, frowning a little. "Just because you want cuddling and romance, don't assume we do."

She opened her mouth to reply, but she couldn't find her words.

"Hey, I like cuddling, and I'm manly enough to admit it," Naruto replied, pulling her close and petting her hair possessively as he stuck out his tongue at Sasuke.

Sasuke looked away. "I don't mind... with you, Sakura. With you it's okay. With Naruto, it would bother me. I can't do casual hand-holding or caresses or things like that with him."

Sakura was still confused, but Naruto was nodding in agreement, so she concluded, still befuddled, that it was a macho men thing, and resolved to talk it out with Ino. Maybe she would have a better insight.

"And, uhm, when I'm here? Does it bother you then? I didn't notice..."

"No, not when you're here," Sasuke sighed. "It's fine then. But --" he gave her a stern little frown -- not an angry one, but a 'you better not take it badly, because I'm being serious' one. "But you don't _need_ to drag the second one into it every time." He hesitated, then finished quickly. "It's enough to know that I'd be welcome if I wanted to."

Naruto grinned. "Someone's getting fed up with all that talking about his feeling, I see!"

The blond boy hugged her a last time, kissed her hair, then let her go. Apparently Sasuke wasn't the only one who had humored her long enough.

She made a note to keep extending invitations to Naruto, though; she couldn't say that he was as sure of his welcome as Sasuke was and she was a little afraid that he would assume a lack of invitation meant a lack of welcome. Sometimes she would probably want alone time with Sasuke, but she couldn't let Naruto think that it happened more often than it did. It was going to be hard enough to keep things balanced.

* * *

Uargh, fluff. Next chapter is Sasuke's. I dare hope he won't be that sugary. XD 


	5. Sasuke : Up to Snuff

-Mmh, logic. No, actually, two boys for one girl does not mean twice as much yaoi. ("ZOMG! there's like, HET in your bisexual male/male/female fic!1!" Me :cracks up: ) Relax, people, you'll get your NaruSasu, I swear. Eventually. (hell, in my mind Sasuke already has a crush on Naruto the size of the moon, he just doesn't want to admit it because he's a big bad macho male with more pride than common sense, and he's too proud to suck it up and tell his rival that he feels all tingly in his pants every time they beat each other up.)

-A new Teamwork prequel is up on ffnet. "Progression" : Naruto-centric, series of ficlets about Kyuubi and Naruto's social and sexual discoveries, from the start of the Timeskip to just before Teamwork. (no, no lemon :p)

Also up are a few random sidefics, futurefics and crackfics in the Teamwork Ficlets.

-My apologies for the wait. Sasuke was an asshole and didn't talk to me, a few scenes popped out of nowhere, and a few -- very much central -- other scenes drew a blank for the longest time; I couldn't find a way to even start them. (and when they started, they went from the planned five pages to over twenty, what the hell.) It's done now; hopefully the next chapter won't take as long.

Thorough beta by the amazing Windshades.

**

* * *

Chapter 5: Up to Snuff  
****(Sasuke)  
****(A.K.A.: Sasuke Broods Too Damn Much. Cheer Up, Emo Boy.)**

Monday. Start of the new week. Return to normal life, waiting for Kakashi at the bridge. Hopefully, a mission, a chance to hone his skills even further...

Hah. Right. After that mess with Naruto's tenant, Team Seven would be lucky if they got anything but D-class for the next year.

Sasuke stared at the water running merrily under the red bridge in the same cheerful, unconcerned way it always did, and briefly, irrationally resented it for staying the same when his whole life was being fucked with once again.

Oh, sure, it wasn't really a bad change in itself; and ninjas adapted easily to new circumstances, it was in the job description.

It wasn't a bad change in the same way as his entire clan getting murdered was. But it fucked with his plans all the same.

He glanced at Naruto; the blond was goofing off on the handrail, trying to spot fish in the shadows of the bridge. Naruto didn't seem the worse for wear, for someone who had spent his night roaming the building -- and, incidentally, mildly freaking Sasuke out.

When Sasuke had been told about Naruto's sleepwalking problem, during their brief escape from the village, he'd assumed it meant that Kyuubi was somehow in control -- but he should have known better. If Kyuubi had really been able to take total control while Naruto was unaware, then they would have locked him up ages ago. Jiraiya, for all that he liked the blond pest, would have never covered that up.

Yet even though the eyes were indeed red, the nails way too long, and the behavior not quite human -- Naruto never sniffed things that openly; or hunted bats, and mice, and cats, and other animals who had the misfortune of coming out at night... Well, Sasuke kind of doubted that Kyuubi no Youko would ever lower himself to actually look twice at that sort of prey. It seemed so far beneath him. Besides, there was no real recognition in his -- their? -- eyes. Sasuke had been acknowledged as being there, sometimes he'd been sniffed too, or nudged and bumped into semi-affectionately; but they didn't talk to him and didn't answer beyond a twitch or a vague frown when he talked to them.

He'd only met Kyuubi face-to-face once, but it was enough to remember the demon-fox's expressions. They were wildly different from Naruto's, but there was no denying that they were there. They were not the expression -- or lack thereof -- that he'd showed last night.

Sasuke didn't have a clue what he was supposed to do about the incident, or if he was even supposed to do anything. He didn't know how much Naruto was aware of, or how dangerous the sleepwalking was to the seal; if Sasuke was supposed to report it, or hide it, or if it really wasn't important at all.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed suddenly, startling him. The blond leaped over Sasuke's head, and took a few more steps on the guardrail before dropping to the girl's level. Sasuke rolled his eyes and straightened up, leaning on his elbow as he watched them exchange embarrassed, pleased looks.

"Hello, Naruto... Sasuke-kun."

He could hear a smile in Sakura's voice, but there was still something subdued about it. It annoyed him that one of his new duties was to notice, and to try to find a way to fix it.

He shouldn't have minded caring. But he cared. And he minded a hell of a lot. Caring was only a burden for an avenger.

He'd allowed that burden to slow him down a little when it had become clear that his teammates wouldn't let him leave them behind -- and also when Itachi had more-or-less disappeared. He'd allowed them to slow down his quest for power, because they wouldn't let him go and he had been made aware that he needed more time to catch up to his brother. He had despised himself for needing them, for missing an opportunity -- but the opportunity was gone with Orochimaru's death and they -- his teammates, his teacher, the Hokage and the Council and fucking _everyone_ -- had been careful to only allow him to glimpse occasions to get stronger which came from the Leaf. And after a few years, he'd grudgingly admitted that maybe Konoha didn't stifle his growth the way he'd thought at thirteen.

But there was a difference between having teammates dogging his heels on his path to power, and settling down to raise a family.

He didn't want to share his thoughts with the two of them, though; despite how well they knew him, they would still try to make it better by insisting on looking on the good sides of the situation. He was aware of the good sides. It didn't dull his first goal in life any, and it didn't make him feel any less hampered by the shitload of new responsibilities he'd acquired.

Naruto could laugh and be carefree, he thought with some resentment, as he watched Sakura hesitate a second before giving the blond a peck on the cheek, and Naruto beam and launch into a retelling of his grand adventures with the contents of Sasuke's cupboards. The blond was getting almost everything he'd ever wanted, and there was no good reason why it would prevent him from reaching for Hokage later on.

Sakura, at least, was more sensible; she wasn't walking on Cloud Nine all the time.

Sasuke didn't want to make it worse for everyone by being an ass, so when Sakura came to him and paused, unsure, he leaned toward her a little, a neutral expression firmly affixed to his face. She pecked his offered cheek quickly, and then beamed. It made him twitch inwardly. If only he could be stopped from obsessing over his own problems as easily -- argh. And now he was feeling sorry for himself.

"Still at the Yamanakas?" he asked, just to stop thinking.

Sakura looked relieved by his starting of the conversation. "Yes. They're so nice... But my father promised he'd talk to Mom, so maybe I'll be back home soon," she added, making a decent attempt at a hopeful grin.

"That's great, Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed. "I mean -- you probably miss them and all, so..."

"I do, yes -- um, listen, both of you," she added quickly, lowering her voice. "I have to tell you a few things before Kakashi-sensei arrives."

There was an odd quality to her voice, as if she were forcing herself to keep on sounding detached. Sasuke braced himself for news that he probably didn't want to hear.

"What's that? You want to hide things from your favorite teacher?"

Sasuke twitched, and Naruto and Sakura whirled around. "AAH!"

One of these days, he would make Kakashi tell him how the hell he managed to totally cover up the gathering of chakra that signaled an incoming. He was also pretty sure that the swirl of leaves now littering the bridge was there as a sign of courtesy -- or laziness.

Kakashi smiled genially at his students, crouching on his pillar. "Sorry, sorry! I was waylaid by our most beloved Hokage..."

"Liar!" exclaimed Naruto predictably. "Why would old hag Tsunade -- wait a sec, you're not even late!"

Kakashi blinked. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"... He's not?" Sakura asked, quickly checking the position of the sun.

Naruto boggled. "Well, maybe ten minutes. But that's NOTHING! Sensei, are you sick!"

Now Kakashi looked faintly embarrassed; Tsunade had probably tricked him. "... As a matter of fact, no. Hokage-sama insisted that I transmit this to you, Sakura."

She took the rolled up sheets of paper and undid the knot, glanced at it, and then bit her lip. Sasuke arched an eyebrow at her, and Naruto tried unsubtly to look over her shoulder. Sakura moved as if to hide it from him, and then sighed, and just let him read on.

"What's that? A timetable? Pushups, jogging..."

"This is my new training regimen," she replied casually, at odds with her previous attitude. Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"What do you need a new training regimen for?" he asked.

"Well, Hokage-sama has decided that I'll be safer if I make sure to be in excellent health. You know that babies draw on the mother's chakra reserves..."

As a matter of fact, he knew, and he knew that she knew. Why on Earth would she try to misdirect him by pretending to share info? Even Naruto was aware of that little fact, even if his mildly surprised expression proved that it slipped his mind sometimes. Besides, there were a lot of sheets for one training regimen, unless the Hokage was detailing new and complicated exercises.

"Ah -- Kakashi-sensei, thank you, for bringing this," she continued, turning away from the boys, a smile firmly affixed to her face.

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a suspicious look. Kakashi was still watching them all, expressionless and silent.

Naruto scratched his head and glanced at the papers again. "Uh, Sakura-chan... That's really all your training routine? There's a lot of papers... It's spread on one week, right? 'Cause that would be _brutal_."

Sakura quickly checked the sheets of paper. "... Um, no, it's daily, but there are other things too -- it's not just the training."

"What's the rest?" Sasuke asked, frowning.

"Nutrients I have to get per day, recommended foods and vitamin supplements, things like that..."

"Why d'you have to get all that?" Naruto asked, dumbfounded.

Sasuke snorted. "Every woman does when she's pregnant, dumbass. People sort of LIKE having both mother and baby healthy and surviving the pregnancy."

Had Sakura just flinched?

"Oh, so it's normal then?" Naruto asked with some relief; Sasuke wasn't listening anymore, because she'd flinched again. "But not every woman trains harder when they're pregnant... What about the civilians -- guys?"

Sakura winced, looking away from Sasuke, and glanced at Kakashi imploringly. Their teacher shook his head.

"Sakura, you have to tell them," Kakashi commented.

"Tell us _what_?" Naruto demanded, bewildered and worried.

Sakura twitched, and continued as if she hadn't heard the blond. "But -- I mean... How do you know anyway? Did Hokage-sama tell you?" she demanded, a note of outrage in her voice. "Did she?"

Kakashi gave her a long, bland, and faintly disapproving look. "I'm going to be training you personally, Sakura," he replied softly. "She didn't tell me much, but she did tell me what I needed to know. It wasn't hard to fill in the blanks."

Sakura visibly wilted. Sasuke was starting to really dislike that.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, touching her shoulder hesitantly.

She winced, hesitated.

"What's wrong with you?" Sasuke demanded, pushing away from the guardrail.

"Ah -- it's just... the pregnancy is siphoning off more chakra than it should. I mean..." she took a deep breath, "a lot more."

It wasn't so much the words, as the tone, the way she didn't look up at either of them. The way Kakashi gazed at their little group, careful not to get involved.

"How much danger are you in, exactly?"

She didn't answer right away. Behind her, Naruto had gone still.

"... A lot. I should have told you two yesterday," Sakura added, giving him a miserable look. "But, um... Ididn'twanttobreakthemood," she muttered, looking down at her feet with rapt attention.

Sasuke scowled, dissatisfied with himself. Usually, Sakura was relatively easy to see through. Not as obvious as Naruto, but it was easy enough to see when her smile was false. Yesterday, though, he hadn't noticed that she was hiding something in particular.

"And you didn't think that it was a little more important than 'the mood'?"

Naruto hissed between his teeth and glowered at him. "Don't be a dick, Sasuke, she told us today."

The moron dared to look disappointed in him. What the hell. Sasuke sneered at him. "Only because Kakashi made her."

"I was going to!" she protested, missing Naruto's aborted gesture to -- touch her, hold her.

And now she sounded hurt, and Naruto was still looking disappointed, in him and a little in her, and Sasuke was the bad guy again.

"Enough." Kakashi dropped from his perch, hands in his pockets. "I don't care to know what you do during downtime. You have three D-rank missions for today. Sasuke, Naruto, you'll share the tasks between the two of you. Sakura, with me. We'll get you started on that training regimen."

He paused, stared at the three of them.

"From the moment you arrive here, to the moment I send you home, you are my soldiers. Leave your personal life at home. Our team doesn't need the baggage."

Sasuke stared at the planks under his feet and pretended that he didn't feel chastised. Kakashi was right, of course. This was not the time to whine and bitch; it was the time to train, and possibly earn some money. D-ranks seemed very much beneath him -- them -- but he could be professional.

Probably better than Naruto, too.

* * *

Over the next two weeks, Sasuke's resolve to behave like a professional was sorely tested. 

Along with the usual weeding and gardening _("... Splash me with mud again and DIE."), _delivering messages, food and heavy items all over Konoha ("_Betcha I'll be done first!"),_ carrying old women's purchases _("Such a handsome and well-behaved young man. Tell me, do you know my granddaughter Emi? She's about your age and..."),_ they also had the good luck of collecting kunai lost by academy students during a field trip _("How the HELL did that land **there**?"),_ assisting the teacher of the five-year-old _kids ("It's like herding cats..." "I'd rather BE herding cats." "... Saasuke... Please tell me that ours will take after Shika and just stay put all day..."),_ and babysitting/bodyguarding the nephew of some noble or other during a trip to an amusement park_ ("Naruto, damn it, you don't spank your customer!" "Spoiled brat deserved worse! He was only pretending to cry anyway." "Yes, but his parents aren't pretending to dock our pay, you retard.")._

Then Hokage-sama needed her library sorted out and the subjects of her scrolls noted down in alphabetical order _("Oh wow, that's really gross. Look, Sasuke!" "... Get that scroll out of my face if you don't want it stuffed up your ass." "Less flirting, more lifting, brats -- you still have these crates to do."),_ and then it was laundry at the hospital_ ("Oh, OWW, they've put electric fences around the water tower!" "...I wonder why, moron." "... Oh, right. Uh... Sasuke..." "Less whispering, more sheets hanging, boys! And I better not see you using these laundry baskets for anything untoward, alright?" "What! We weren't --" "Oh, **you** weren't inappropriate, but them foxes, they're all perverts, you can't trust 'em. Guard your rear, child." "...You want your rear guarded, Saaaasuke-kun?" "Ah, shut up -- and don't even think about it."),_ and then it was filling in for sick orderlies at the senile old ninjas ward. _("Well at least there's not a lot of them --" ZING "--but who the HELL thought they should get to keep shuriken!" "You don't want to deal with the paranoia they work themselves into when we try to take their weapons, kid. You don't. They haven't lived so long because they're -- watch out!" "... Shower. **Where**." "... Uh. At least the bedpan was changed a few hours ago?" "SHOWER. WHERE.")_

Sasuke did his very best to stay focused, though he quite missed Sakura at times. Competing with Naruto could make the most tedious physical tasks entertaining, and Naruto never got hurt when Sasuke felt like not talking and tuned him out; but there were moments he wondered how they could do anything without her to play the diplomat between the two of them. They play-fought -- even when they knew perfectly well that often it wasn't appropriate -- about as often as they fought seriously, with cutting words and fists to the face -- and they were both too stubborn to apologize afterwards.

And she was the only one who actually knew anything about the hospital and its residents -- or, hell, the only one who had any nurturing instincts at all, not to mention actual patience -- and she was too busy kicking the shit out of things to keep the crazy old coots at bay. Did he look like a goddamn nurse to the sadist who gave these missions out?

When the missions didn't take all day, Naruto and Sasuke usually went to train with the rest of their team. Afterwards, they walked Sakura home to the Yamanakas -- they'd used to hang out from time to time, but that was before Sakura had started trying to convince her mother that she wasn't busy being a slut every minute she wasn't training ... not that there were a lot left of _those_ minutes anymore. Besides he saw Naruto all evening, there was really no surprise if half the time the blond skipped away to go spy on bathhouses with Konohamaru, or whatever it was that they did together. Or maybe he went and bothered Iruka, whatever. And the few times Kakashi let them go early, and Naruto and Sakura could hang out, Sasuke was the one who needed to go to the bank to talk about his accounts, or had to write letters right and left to see about getting as many of his clan's old rights, privileges and status back as possible. The political and legal ramifications were giving him a headache.

Needless to say, he wasn't in a very receptive mood when Sakura interrupted the relative quiet of their lunch break -- which he was using to train a little more; his taijutsu was getting rusty -- and announced, "My father wants to invite you two to dinner."

"... Uh. Okay," Naruto stuttered out from his spot on the grass a few feet away.

Sakura looked very uncomfortable. "As my... um. Boyfriends, I guess. I told him a little while ago, and. Well. He knows."

Sasuke cringed inwardly. Meeting Sakura's parents? That was going to be excruciating. He had enough on his plate already with all the legal responsibilities, he was going to have to answer to enough people as it was. The idea of justifying, defending himself and their relationship again in front of someone who had no real authority over him or his was grating on his nerves.

"And he really wants to meet us?" Naruto seemed to be worried about getting dragged down to the basement and clobbered.

"Well... Yes. He, um, he's not perfectly okay with it, I don't think -- it was a shock, and I think he's still doing his best to wrap his mind around it, but... He'll try to keep an open mind. That's good, isn't it?"

Sasuke nodded absently while Naruto beamed at her. He supposed it was, for her; but he'd almost forgotten what it was like to have parents to answer to, people who had an emotional investment, and responsibility, in your life.

"And your mother?"

Sakura avoided their eyes. "She... Well, she knows you're coming."

Sasuke's eye twitched, but somehow he managed not to retort anything. "When?"

"Next Friday evening. Seven PM."

He narrowed his eyes, nodded, and went back to his kata. There wasn't much to add, really.

She kept watching him as he trained, with reproachful, disappointed eyes, and only stopped when Kakashi came back and guided her through more exercises. Naruto scowled at Sasuke, and then went his own way.

The last time Naruto had followed the patterns with Sakura, she had ended up screaming at him for getting it on the third try, when she was going through her tenth and still having trouble with it. Usually, Sasuke discreetly followed with the Sharingan, in case Kakashi showed her something that he could use later -- not that it happened often, but you never knew -- but today, he turned away.

It was still early, certainly. But he wasn't stupid; he could read her dissatisfaction with herself, and the way Kakashi frowned sometimes, and her body language the few times they'd seen her leaving the Hokage's office at the hospital. She was progressing some, but at her current rate of progress... She was working too hard, tiring herself out, and it wasn't enough. Maybe it was just that she hadn't found her rhythm yet, that her body was still trying to adapt, and she just needed more time. Maybe.

And then there was the way she would sick up at the most random smells, and the constant fatigue -- though that was probably mostly due to the training -- and the way she would wince and rub at her chest sometimes ... It had been surprising and... well, okay, interesting, the first time he'd caught her doing that, but by now it was clear that she wasn't comfortable.

But Kakashi was already training her, and as for the lack of comfort -- well, Sasuke wasn't a medic-nin either. There was nothing he could do about her health.

There wasn't much he could do about most of their problems, but he didn't want to think about it. He lost himself in his practice, again and again and again. No thoughts to bother him, nothing but his body and the way it answered to him.

* * *

It was past mid-afternoon when Kakashi called him. Sasuke wordlessly went to spar with Sakura while their teacher drilled Naruto on much-needed genjutsu. 

As the hours crawled by, he could see her tiring out, losing her coordination. She tried too hard to compensate, becoming more and more erratic and reckless. Sasuke forbade himself from commenting on her efforts in anything but an utterly neutral tone. He tried to silence the growing certainty, but he couldn't; he saw it in her eyes too.

At her current rate of progress, she wasn't going to make it.

He called for a halt, finally. She was making mistake after mistake. If she had been Naruto, he would have been mocking her; he didn't comment, turning away to get something to drink. Sakura's taijutsu had always been inferior to his -- he couldn't really expect a challenge -- and they were trying to get her body to develop its chakra pathways, to get used to handling bigger quantities, first and foremost; teaching her more hand to hand was secondary. That she got exhausted too quickly, though -- that was frustrating, but it was useless to point it out to her; it was doubtless that she was aware of the fact.

She was pale and her jaws were clenched, eyes a little too wide and a little too wet; he would have hated to be seen like that. He avoided looking at her as he picked up her canteen and passed it to her.

It was slapped out of his hand, catching him by surprise, and went sailing into a tree.

It was just her frustration, he told himself as he looked at her, forbidding himself from feeling the same.

"You -- you..."

"... Yes?" he prompted her. She looked ready to blow up, or to break down; he didn't know which. Maybe the pregnancy hormones played a part in that, he considered absently.

"Asshole!" she screeched, fists clenched, trembling.

He was vaguely aware that Kakashi and Naruto couldn't have missed that. Most of his attention was on her, though.

"What did I do now?" he asked tiredly, and just a little defensively.

"You -- you're looking at me and not saying anything and you don't even fucking CARE, do you! You don't care, you just despise me because I'm not up to your standards--"

"Sakura," he interrupted her, frowning. "I'm not saying anything because you're already aware of the problems; I don't see what it would add for me to --"

"Maybe a feeling that you give a damn about me? Not the baby, _me_!"

For a second, she looked horrified at blurting that out, and then, as he only stared, shocked, her anger came roaring back.

"God, Sasuke, would it kill you to just -- just hold me or something -- or even look fucking sorry -- or angry, even, then I'd know that you give a damn!"

What? She didn't seriously think -- what did she want, an engraved poem about his feelings all over the Hokage monument? "How am I supposed to guess when you want me to hold you?" he snapped back, clenching his teeth.

She didn't listen, continuing her diatribe. "We've been together for three weeks now and you only kiss me when Naruto kisses me first! You never touch me when you don't _have_ to and -- and..."

He unclenched his fists forcefully, reached for her shoulder. That was what she wanted, right? She dodged his hand, bending to pick up her bag with jerky movements.

"Sakura--"

"I'm going home."

Naruto burst through the bushes, looking alarmed. "Sakura-chan! What's going on?"

"Nothing," she snapped, her back on them. "I'm done. I'll see you tomorrow."

Kakashi's hand fell on Naruto's shoulder as he opened his mouth to call her back. The blond stared up at his teacher, and then at Sakura as she left the field, and finally at Sasuke, who was still rooted in the same spot.

"What did you DO to her?" Naruto exclaimed.

"How the hell should I know?" Sasuke hissed back.

Naruto shrugged off Kakashi's hand, getting in Sasuke's face. "She was crying!"

Sasuke really wanted to deck him. Somehow he refrained. "I don't KNOW, alright?"

"Well, what did you say to her?"

"Nothing, damn it! What was I supposed to say? 'Wow, you really suck today'?"

Two heavy, gloved hands landed on their shoulders, separating them. "Sasuke. Naruto." Kakashi sounded annoyed for once.

"Yeah, don't mix up your personal life and ninja stuff, we know," Naruto muttered, looking away.

"You've both done that today. You and Sakura. Remember, next time. As for you, Sasuke," he added wryly, "you didn't mix it up enough."

Sasuke looked up at him, incredulous. "I should have -- what, kissed her out here?"

"If I see any of you kissing during training," Kakashi replied dryly, "that will be twenty laps around the Forest of Death. Inside the fence." He let that sink in before continuing. "You don't have to kiss her to express your respect of her abilities as your teammate, though. No one likes feeling like dead weight."

"But she knew that she was doing badly," Sasuke opposed, scowling.

Kakashi sighed. "She doesn't have the same natural advantages as you, or Naruto, do. Her best isn't going to be anything like yours. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't encourage her to reach it and go past it."

"That wasn't her best," he muttered. Naruto was glaring at him as if Sasuke was being disloyal for admitting it. "It _wasn't_," he insisted. "She kept getting frustrated and wanting to go too fast."

"Then point that out," Kakashi drawled in a long-suffering tone. "So long as you point out what she does right, too."

Sasuke was starting to get really, really tired of feeling chastened.

"Yeah, she can't read your mind," Naruto intervened, lower lip jutting out in a stubborn pout. "Girls like it when you actually tell them stuff."

Sasuke glared at Naruto and wished that he would just stop butting in already. He didn't need them to gang up on him. "_You_ don't need me to tell you when you mess up."

"That's because I don't need your lessons!" Naruto growled, bristling. "...Besides when I mess up I get a fist in the face; 's not as if I don't notice where I went wrong."

"Should I start punching her in the face, then?"

"What? No!"

"Maybe, yes."

Sasuke and Naruto stared at Kakashi, who now looked bored.

"Not yet, obviously. But if you want to take the Chuunin exam this year, she needs to be aware of the holes in her guard."

Sasuke gave him an incredulous look. "What, I should break her bones too? Naruto heals so fast it doesn't matter, but she--"

"She has some training as a medic-nin," Kakashi reminded them. "If you want her to be of any use on the field, she needs to start using these abilities in combat situations. Knowing the theory is fine, but if she can't use it outside of a calm, controlled environment, it's useless."

Pulling his book out of his pocket, he started looking for his page. Sasuke looked away. No more berating, finally.

"You two will keep on sparring with her whenever possible. Give her two more weeks, and then start taking the openings she leaves."

Naruto looked uncomfortable. "But, Kakashi-sensei..."

"... None of the teams you will encounter in the exam will have a problem punching her in the stomach, you know."

Sasuke tensed up; Naruto jerked.

"Seeing how hard the child is clinging to her, I doubt she'll lose it from a normal hit. But you don't know what kind of adversaries you will encounter, and even if she isn't showing by then, her scent will be different. People _will _notice, and _will_ try to take advantage of it."

Sasuke sighed and rubbed at his face. Great, one more worry to add to his pile.

Kakashi turned the page, and started to walk away. "Tomorrow morning, same hour."

Naruto grumbled a goodbye as they picked up their stuff. Then they more-or-less fell into step, both sour and discontented.

When they reached the top of the stairs, and Sasuke unlocked his door, they still hadn't said a word to each other. Sasuke pretended that he was glad for the quiet, except that Naruto's thoughts were so loud he could almost hear them, and he hated that even more than a good yelling session.

Sasuke would have liked to sit heavily on his couch and glare at the far wall, but Naruto's sleeping bag was still spread on the seat. He would have liked to take a shower, but Naruto was already getting undressed. He paced in his bedroom, and then, wondering why he was locking himself away in his own apartment, stomped to the kitchen.

No fresh groceries. Well, of course not; he hadn't bothered to shop in a week, and Naruto only ever bought meat and fruit, as if he'd keel over if he touched vegetables. As for the cupboards... There was no way to find anything which didn't involve pulling the boxes out to see what was behind. None of it was that stable, either. He picked up one fallen package, two fallen packages, and kicked the third one across the kitchen when it waited for him to straighten up before falling.

"Damn it, Naruto, will you stop stuffing your instant ramen packages in every nook and cranny?"

"Ramen what?" Naruto emerged from the bathroom, a towel around his waist. Sasuke glared at him. Moron was dripping everywhere.

"Do you even know how to dry yourself properly?"

"It's tiles, it'll dry. What's that about ramen?"

"Stop stocking up as if they're going to stop selling it tomorrow, and stop invading my cupboards with it," Sasuke snapped back, turning away to stuff things back in. He still hadn't found anything to eat, and now Naruto was strutting around, wet and almost naked, as if he owned the place.

"What am I supposed to do with them, build a fort around the couch?" Naruto grouched back as he left the doorway to get dressed.

"That would be an idea."

A wet towel sailed from the living room past the kitchen, landing on the tiles at the bottom of the bathroom door.

"Hey, it's not like you can't eat some when you feel like it, you know. I don't mind sharing my ramen with you."

A ramen packet sailed from the kitchen to the back of Naruto's head.

"Maybe I don't want it."

"Ow!"

The packet sailed right back; Sasuke caught it before it could break open on a wall and threw it in the wastebasket.

"Maybe you're an asshole. Seriously, what's up with you today? First you make Sakura yell at you and now you get all bent out of shape about ramen of all things! What's your -- oof."

Naruto hit the floor with a satisfying thud. Sasuke assured his grip on the back of his neck and forbade himself from thinking anything about the position, the bare back, or the way Naruto's damp hair was sticking to his hand. At least the moron was wearing pants.

"Sasuke!" Naruto had been trying to sound angry, but angry or not, wheezing was never that threatening.

"No. More. Ramen. In. My. Cupboards." Naruto bucked and twisted under him; Sasuke tightened the hold of his legs on his waist, and caught one of his wrists before the blond could join his hands to try a jutsu. "Oh no you don't, not inside."

"So don't ATTACK me inside!"

Sasuke slapped the back of his head; Naruto snarled in outrage. "If it was an attack, you'd be dead, cretin!"

"Well forgive me for thinking I'm safe inside your walls, asshole!" Naruto bucked again, jerking his hand closer to his head; still trying to control him, Sasuke didn't think to let go of his wrist until Naruto's teeth clamped down on his forearm.

"What the hell was that for, fucker!" Sasuke hissed, rolling off Naruto and kicking him in the side. He landed in a crouch, a knee on the floor, and spared a quick glance at his arm; Naruto hadn't broken the skin, but he was going to have a hell of a bruise.

"YOU are calling ME fucker? You're the one who tackled me from behind with no warning, you crazy son of a bitch!" Naruto was in a matching crouch at the other end of the room, teeth bared.

Maybe he would have pounced, if the neighbor hadn't knocked on the wall hard, making them both start guiltily. Naruto took a deep breath, and then straightened up slowly, giving Sasuke a dirty look. "No, seriously, what the hell's wrong with you today? And fuck, today, what am I saying -- all of last week! I'm used to you being a bastard, but -- damn it."

The blond stomped to the couch and started to pile up his clothes, folding them haphazardly. Sasuke hissed between his clenched teeth and got back up on his feet, picking up a sock and lobbing it, not at Naruto's head like he wanted to, but at the couch. By his head. Naruto didn't react; Sasuke sighed wearily.

"So now it's my fault Sakura yelled at me for her failure?"

Naruto whirled around, teeth bared, taking Sasuke aback. He had fangs now, and slits for pupils. "You better not have told her to her face that she was a failure."

"I didn't say anything," he replied frostily, pretending not to care about the feral growl lining Naruto's words. "She's the one who got all bent out of shape because I'm supposed to divine when she wants me to hold her or kiss her or whatever."

Naruto stared at him, then snorted and turned back to his clothes, folding them with jerky movements. "God, I know I'm retarded with all that social stuff, but you take the cake. She's a nice girl and she's in love with you; you should want to do that whenever you get a chance, because she does!"

Sasuke took in a deep breath, then released it slowly. "I am never going to be physically affectionate, and if she expects it of me, she better be ready to be disappointed."

Naruto twitched. "We know you're a frozen ice-bitch, you dick. It still wouldn't kill you to force yourself when she really needs you to."

"And how am I supposed to know exactly?"

Naruto turned to face him again, fists clenched. "Dunno, when she looks like she's about to cry, maybe?" Naruto stared at him a few seconds longer, then snorted dismissively, his back to him again. "You really are a jackass, Sasuke."

"... Fuck you."

"You wish, bottom boy."

Sasuke's eyes widened, then narrowed in anger. "What did you call me -- where the hell are you going?"

Naruto had picked up a shirt and was making his way toward the door as he pulled it over his head.

"To see Iruka-sensei."

"What for?" Sasuke asked, annoyed. "You saw him yesterday."

"Just to talk to someone who's not such a fucking asshole, alright? At least with him I always feel welcome!"

The door slammed, leaving Sasuke staring at it.

... Bastard. Sasuke snarled wordlessly, kicking one of Naruto's scrolls out of his way, and stomped back to his bedroom. He slammed the door too, but it was a lot less satisfying when there was no one to hear it.

When the neighbor protested a second time, he slammed it again, and regretted not owning a radio.

* * *

The week went on with the three of them pretending -- badly -- that nothing had happened. During training, Sakura was depressed, and Naruto sulked. After training, Ino usually picked up Sakura and left, pointedly avoiding looking at the boys, and Naruto murmured some excuse or other and went to find one of his friends. At least he still slept in Sasuke's apartment, but it wasn't as if they did much more than share the area. 

Sasuke was bored, and trying to pretend that he wasn't starting to feel guilty; but he didn't have a clue how to fix the mess.

Tonight, as had become his habit this week, Naruto had disappeared again. Sasuke scowled angrily as he searched his closet for appropriate clothes. They were meeting Sakura's parents for dinner in half an hour.

Maybe she had dragged Naruto away again to inflict another lesson about manners on him... But wouldn't they have warned him? In any case, if the idiot made them late, he would -- no, he probably wouldn't do anything too permanent. He didn't want to go there anymore than Naruto did.

Eventually he chose a relatively nice, white button-up shirt which he had worn maybe twice before. He would have worn a yukata and hakama if it had been a meeting with his family -- but he didn't own any kind of kimono, ceremonial or not; besides, Sakura's parents were from a common family, not a noble clan. They probably weren't that traditional. He debated about the lack of clan symbol on that shirt, but all the tops he owned that bore the Uchiha fan were high-collared t-shirts or tanktops -- way too casual. Besides, he was going as himself -- or should he remind them about his heritage? Would that be a good thing, give him more weight? Argh. There wasn't much of a choice. It wasn't as if he could wear a tanktop, Uchiha fan or not, and even if he could somehow stitch or dye a fan on his white shirt, it would probably look weird and out of place. God, he hated having to choose clothes. There was a reason he usually bought everything in bulk; much easier to stick with the kind he already knew he looked okay in and which moved well.

"Wow, you're worse than a girl," Naruto commented from the doorway as he eyed the clothes littered all over the room, and barely dodged a kunai.

"Where the fuck were you?" Sasuke snarled at him, pretending that he hadn't actually been startled.

"Out. Listen..." Naruto seemed to search for words; then he grimaced and pushed something in Sasuke's hands. "Here."

Sasuke stared at the little black box, confused. "What the hell is that?"

"It's for Sakura. From you."

Sasuke looked up, even more confused. Naruto's jaw was set in a stubborn line, as if he expected a fight.

"From me? The hell?"

"I took most of the money from your stash, so technically it's yours. And it's for you to give her. 'Cause... Her parents -- well."

Sasuke was going to be angry at Naruto for looking through his apartment, but the mention of the Harunos confused him enough to pause. And then it snapped into place. He opened the box quickly --

"...A ring."

"Yeah. Think it will do for an engagement ring? Didn't have the money to get her a fancy one..."

It was a simple thing, three flat, interlaced metal bands. Pink, yellow, and silver. "It's gold?"

"Uh, dunno, it's supposed to be, but it might be alloys. Told you I didn't have much money. But I figure you can get more money from the bank and get her a proper one later. This one's mostly so her parents don't think... Well. You see. But it's also to make her happy. I figure you can do with some pointers," Naruto added with a strange grin.

Sasuke wondered why it was suddenly hitting him so hard that it was real, that in a few months, at the very most, he was going to marry Sakura; that she was going to be his wife and he'd live his life with her -- and that Naruto loved her. Loved her so much -- loved him, too -- that he would --

"Give it to her yourself."

Naruto gaped, and then glared at him in frustration. "What? No way! I'm not her fiance, YOU are! YOU give her the stupid ring."

"You bought it, you give it!"

"It was your money!"

"So take money out of your next pay and pay me back!"

"No fucking way in hell. You're her fiance, so you have to have a ring. I'm your -- I got it for you. You gotta give it to her."

"My boyfriend."

"...What?"

"My boyfriend. Our boyfriend. Our lover. Say it."

Naruto stared at him for a second; Sasuke refused to stop glaring at him. The blond hesitated, tongue flicking out to lick his lips nervously, then smiled.

"Alright. I'm your ... boyfriend -- man, that sounds gay," he laughed, and dodged a punch from Sasuke. "So I got it for you. For the two of you. Because you've been all hissy at each other recently, and I really don't like it. It's not natural! So please, just take it and smooth things out, alright?"

Sasuke considered it. "No."

"Oi! Don't make me make you sleep on the couch!"

"You're already sleeping on the couch."

"I'll take the sex away!"

"We're not even having sex!"

"Yeah, well, we should -- why aren't we again?"

"Sakura's never around."

The mention of her name sobered them up.

"Oh, right. You know, if you give her the ring, she'll be so happy, her dad and mom will shove her in our arms with their blessings, and then we can move in together and have tons and tons of sex."

Yeah, right. They'd give their blessings to Sasuke, maybe, but not to Naruto. Especially if Sakura was persuaded that the ring only came from Sasuke.

"Drop it," he commanded coldly, shoving the box back at Naruto. "Give it to her yourself."

The pleading puppy eyes flashed purplish-red and dangerous for a second; Sasuke braced himself, but the only thing that came was a long, frustrated wail.

"No, alright? No! We're trying to make her happy with you, and it's not gonna help if I thought of that stuff first and she thinks you didn't even remember. Alright? It's really not gonna help. So if you'll just pretend you bought it for her, she'll be happy, and you won't have to be grouchy all the time, and that will make me tons happier. Everyone wins."

Sasuke glared at him in disbelief. "It's going to make her happy because she'll think I magically turned into some thoughtful, sensitive, romantic guy, and then she'll expect it to continue! Yeah, she'll be happy, but about what? A _lie_! And what's that shit about happy 'with me'? Like you won't be there!"

Naruto flinched, then growled in irritation, and clenched his fists briefly before raking both hands through his hair. "Yeah, right, we're in this together. I remember. But -- listen. We're partners, right? We're helping each other out. You give her the ring, smooth things out for now, and later -- well, I'm sure I'll mess up, too! So whenever either of us sees the other acting like an ass, we tell each other! We spot for each other. Eventually we'll get better, and then it won't be -- she won't be expecting things that aren't here, because they'll be here. We'll be... kinda trained for it."

Sasuke stared at the box, which had somehow ended up in his hands again, then scoffed, muttering, "Trained. In being sensitive. Hah."

Naruto grimaced. "Well, it sure isn't coming naturally," he grumbled, then shrugged it off. "Besides, I'm not expecting miracles, and I'm sure she isn't, either. You wouldn't be Sasuke if you weren't an asshole. I'm pretty sure they put your face beside the word 'utter bastard' in the dictionary."

They stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Sasuke shrugged, making a face. "That's two words. Moron."

Naruto started snickering. "You prick."

"I thought you liked it."

No, he decided as he watched Naruto crack up, Sasuke was definitely not smirking. Even less smiling. Not even a little bit.

"Come on, dead last, we're going to be late."

The blond gaped at his clock, and surged forward without warning. "Oh crap! We're already late!" Naruto yelped as he grabbed Sasuke's wrist and dragged him outside.

"Wait -- let me lock the door!" Sasuke pulled free with annoyance, securing his apartment quickly, and then started running after Naruto, who was all but dancing in impatience on the railing. "What the hell do you mean, late?" Sasuke demanded as they jumped over to the nearest tree and skidded down the trunk to the footbridge. "We have fifteen minutes!"

"Yeah, and we have to --" Naruto leaped over a toddler, vaulting over the edge of the bridge -- "pick up Sakura-- " they raced each other up a wall, landing on a tiled roof --"and you have to give her the ring --" they broke their straight run to dodge around another ninja who had just emerged from a window-- "and it's not gonna be done in three seconds!" Cat, fuck! Another quick dodge, grabbing a pole to fling themselves further away-- "And we can't arrive at her parents' like we just ran through the village!"

"Since when are you Mister Ideal Boyfriend anyway?" Sasuke snapped back as he leaped over a street.

"I just asked IrukACK!"

A green and pink blur had just burst out of a nearby greenhouse and clothes-lined Naruto. Sasuke instinctively fell into a fighting stance --

"You're LATE!"

"... Sakura?"

She was holding Naruto up against her hip, with the boy hanging from her arm around his neck. "You're late! How could you be that late? I told you two to be here early so I could fix your clothes -- Sasuke-kun, your _hair_!"

Blinking, he touched his hair automatically. It felt like it always did. "What?"

"It looks like a bird's nest, didn't you even comb it?" she replied, half angry and half panicked, as she grabbed his wrist, Naruto's collar, and hauled them toward the opened window in the roof of the greenhouse. "IINOO! Get me a brush!"

The blonde girl put her basket of flowers and her pruning shears down on a bench, and hurried off, but not quickly enough to hide her snickers. "Yes, sir, Sakura, sir!" she mocked before disappearing behind a large hanging plant.

Sasuke landed awkwardly; she still hadn't let go of his wrist. At least she hadn't dragged Naruto through the window with them; he was still teetering precariously on the ledge, but it was better than diving into the potted plants head first.

"Naruto, get down here, and don't get dirty!" Sakura ordered, before starting to tug on Sasuke's shirt and smooth the wrinkles out.

Naruto grabbed the edge and rolled forward, swinging for a second before he landed between two racks bearing small potted flowers. He almost collided with Ino, who was emerging from her house at the same time.

"Huh, you need some help with your hair, too. Don't move."

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a long-suffering look through the rack as Ino attacked Naruto's hair with gel, mirroring Sakura's fussing with Sasuke's clothes.

"Hurry up, Ino-pig, I need it too!" Sakura demanded as she finished a last, observational circle around Sasuke. Ino reached through the rack at his side, gave the pot to Sakura, then dropped her hand -- Sasuke jerked in shock, and turned to stare at Ino. Had she just _groped_ him?

"Ino-pig!"

"Oi!"

The girl burst out laughing. "Oh, come on, that's like the only time in my life when I'll ever have the occasion. Once you take him home and tag him 'fiance', I'll be forbidden."

"You're forbidden now!" Sakura growled. Sasuke blinked, dazed, and stared at her back. The fuck. When had Sakura grabbed him to pull him behind her protectively?

"Yeah, tagged or not, that ass is already owned," Naruto chorused, scowling. Or pouting. It was hard to say. Either way, Sasuke was surprised; Sakura had always been possessive of him, even when she hadn't had the right, but Naruto...

"Aw, don't be jealous," Ino replied in a devious tone as she turned to face Naruto again, and reached around him to give his butt a good squeeze.

"GACK!"

"INO!"

"_HEY_."

"What's going on here?" demanded a male voice from the other side of the wall. Sasuke flushed a little and looked away, pretending that he hadn't been bristling at Ino.

"Nothing, Dad!" "Nothing, Yamanaka-san!" the two girls chorused in an utterly unbelievable, innocent tone.

Ino abandoned Naruto to rush to the connecting door and shoo her father away before he could step inside the glasshouse. Naruto took the occasion to hurry around the rack and join Sakura and Sasuke, spooked.

"Sakura-chan, I'm not pure for you anymore..." he whimpered, hands held over his ass protectively.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the theatrics.

Sakura managed a strangled chuckle before her stressed out expression slammed back into place. "Let me see -- that's a nice shirt, Naruto," she commented quickly as she turned him here and there, giving him the same treatment Sasuke had received. Naruto looked like he didn't know whether to protest, or to enjoy the way her hands flitted all over him.

"There. Done. Your hair... Well, at least Ino-pig can do that much," she muttered ungratefully.

"You didn't check my pants," Naruto commented mournfully, eyes gleaming with impish delight.

"Wh -- your pants are fine..." Sakura trailed off and eyed him worriedly as he turned around, checking for a tear or a smear of dirt.

"No, see, they're tainted by her touch -- here!"

Sasuke watched her stare at Naruto's ass for a few seconds before she understood. "You -- NARUTO!"

"Aw, come on!"

"Pinch him," Sasuke advised grumpily, and turned away from them to go to the connecting door. Ino had managed to chase her father off and was coming back; he put a hand on her shoulder and nudged her back out.

"But -- hey," she protested, confused.

He scowled briefly at her, then reminded himself that they were in her house and he had to be polite. At least a little bit. "...Ino, we need five minutes in private. Alright?"

She pouted, then glanced over at Naruto and Sakura, who were still squabbling, and shrugged. "Alright, alright. But--"

"And don't listen at the door, either," he ordered before closing the door under her nose.

After a moment of thought, he herded Naruto and Sakura to the other end of the greenhouse, just in case. Sakura was staring at him, confused. "Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke glanced at Naruto, but the idiot was no help, blinking at him innocently, as if he didn't have a clue what it was about.

"Uh. Here." He pressed the little box into her hands, and then crossed his arms, turning his face away so that he didn't have to look at her directly.

Naruto was watching her surprise, and her delight, with an open expression of -- Sasuke didn't know. It was a smile, but a little... Sad? Melancholy? But ... glad, too. Sasuke clenched his jaws, cursing the soft-hearted idiot. Sakura was still staring rapturously at the contents of the box; she didn't notice.

She looked up, staring at him with adoring eyes; Naruto was watching the both of them and smiling, and Sasuke wasn't too sure why he wanted to describe it as "from afar" when the blond standing even closer to Sakura than he was.

"From both of us."

"Oh!"

He tensed, watching her closely for disappointment, but all he could see was surprise as she turned to look at Naruto. The blond looked mildly panicked, and glared at Sasuke quickly.

"Is that -- really?"

"Well, uh, yeah. Is it -- d'you like it?" Naruto asked hesitantly.

"Oh -- yes!" she beamed at Naruto, then at him, her eyes suspiciously shiny. "It's so symbolic -- like the three of us. I love it."

"... It's not very fancy," Naruto muttered, though he was looking pleased in spite of himself.

Sasuke allowed himself a little smirk. "Diamonds would have cost a bit more than what we can afford at the moment," he commented casually. Naruto was half-right -- it was better if she assumed that it was from the two of them. And it was -- or it would have been if Naruto had asked him first. But he was going to pay the moron back if it was the last thing he did.

"Oh, it's alright!" she babbled, beaming. "Diamonds are too shiny and bulky anyway; I would have to leave it behind on missions for fear of snagging it on things or blinding our targets, or something."

"This one is still shiny," Sasuke retorted.

"Yes, but only because it's so new. Besides, I can put it on a chain -- it's perfect, really!"

She was holding it tight against her chest, as if afraid that Sasuke was going to take it back.

"... So you don't wanna put it on?" Naruto asked, pretending -- badly -- that he wasn't nervous.

"Oh! Of course, I was just -- um. It's really pretty," she whispered as she pulled it out of the box.

Personally, Sasuke thought that it was a little too plain for her -- but perhaps he could get her a fancy chain to compensate, later.

She looked at him, then at Naruto, and then grinned shyly, bowed her head, and slipped it on; the way she was doing it -- slow and deliberate -- it was like a ceremony. Heavy with meaning. "I would have asked one of you -- but we don't have the time to discuss who gets to do it," she commented with a high-pitched giggle. "And the logistics for the two of you to do it together... Okay, we should get going."

Sasuke wondered briefly if she knew what he and Naruto had argued about earlier; or if she had just guessed that Naruto was probably a lot more responsible for it than he was, and just didn't want a confirmation that might only hurt most parties involved.

Just a little gesture. It would make her happy. It would make Naruto happy. Having them happy would make him -- less annoyed.

Just a little gesture. He could do that. He reached out casually and slipped his fingers in her hand, resting them against her palm in a loose hold. The ring was still cold. "Yeah, let's go."

She looked so stunned that it hurt; he looked away, and only looked back up when Naruto snickered and gave him a 'aww, soo cute' grin. He sneered at the blond, tugged Sakura toward the exit. She tightened her hold, finally, following him -- for about two steps. Then she held him back, and he finally looked back at her, confused.

She was still grinning, embarrassed, but not enough to hide the glowing. "Sasuke-kun, wait..."

"... yeah?"

She hesitated, then her smile became amused. "You didn't think you were going to escape with your hair like that, did you? Come here, let me smooth it down..."

He'd look like he had a ponytail. "No way."

"Sasuke..."

"No. Way. Give me that." He snatched the hair gel from Naruto's hand -- open already; he didn't have to let go of her -- and quickly combed a few dollops through his locks, flattening rebellious spikes. There, that should be enough. Then he put the pot down on a rack, snagged Naruto's arm and pulled them both toward the exit. Stupid idiots had nothing better to do than watch him with those stupid eyes as he combed his stupid hair -- he would have felt less naked if he had actually been naked. What was next, watching him floss his teeth? No, seriously.

"Come on, let's go. How long do we have left?"

"We -- oh no! Two minutes! We'll never get here on time!" Naruto yelped, panicked.

Sakura winced, and then smiled and cutely stuck out her tongue. "Ah -- I lied about the time to make sure we'd have a margin. There's about fifteen minutes left."

* * *

Even with Ino stopping them to shove a bouquet of flowers in Naruto's arms, "For Sakura's mom", they arrived with five minutes to spare; a few of them were wasted with Sakura lecturing and fussing a little more at him and Naruto. 

Sasuke would have been fine without the lecture, but Naruto had to be a nervous, bouncing ball of nerves, and that meant Sasuke got in trouble for hitting him over the head and "messing up his hair". Naruto's hair was about as safe from that as Sasuke's; he privately thought that even with the hair gel, they only looked like slightly more solid, shiny versions of their everyday looks. But if Sakura wanted to believe that made them more presentable... bah.

Of course the door opened when she was in the middle of a tirade with both hands tugging Sasuke's hair while Naruto snickered behind them.

"Hahaha -- um."

"...Ah!"

"Good evening, Haruno-san."

At first, Sasuke thought that the man at the door was Sakura's grandfather. Silvery white hair, thick glasses, leaning heavily on a walking stick...

"Daddy!" Sakura exclaimed as she pecked him quickly on the cheek.

Ah.

"Hey, ol--"

Sasuke stepped on Naruto's foot before he could say anything intelligible, and bowed politely. "Good evening, Haruno-san."

"Uh -- good evening, sir," Naruto chorused quickly. Sasuke wondered how long he was going to remember to use "sir" and not "old man".

"Uchiha-san, Uzumaki-san." Sakura's father nodded a greeting at them both, and stepped away from the door to let them walk in.

Following Sakura's lead, they took off their shoes and stashed them in a corner before putting on slippers, and then stood in awkward silence for a few seconds. Naruto was fidgeting with the flowers, as if unsure what to do with them. Sasuke hoped that the manners Sakura had crammed into his head over the last week included what to do with flowers. If he gave them to her father...

"Where's mom?" Sakura asked, apparently following the same line of thought.

"In the kitchen. You should go call her, Sakura. Young men, if you will follow me..."

He turned away, and with a quick look at each other, they separated; Sakura disappeared through a side-door as the boys followed her father. Sasuke elbowed Naruto, who was looking around openly. No manners, seriously.

It was a nice house, all things considered. A little small, and with lots of highly polished furniture, which made navigating a bit of an obstacles course. The living room had knickknacks here and there, a few paintings, and many, many pictures of Sakura's family. Sasuke watched the man as he sat down cautiously, and moved to take a seat when he gestured toward the couch. Naruto didn't notice; he was busy peering at stuff.

"Hey, is that Sakura-chan?" he asked suddenly, grinning widely.

Sasuke's eyelid twitched. He was so nosy --

"Look, Sasuke. She looks so squishy. Is that a bunny jumper?"

Sasuke tensed, but to his immense relief, the old man chose to smile indulgently. "Yes, that's Sakura at two."

"Hah! Knew it. I'd recognize that hair anywhere." Naruto flashed another grin at Haruno-san, and then turned to look at the picture again, where a pink-haired toddler sprawled on her belly, playing with her toys. "She was so cute."

"Naruto!" Sakura gasped, mortified, as she stopped in the doorway.

"What? you were cute as a kid!"

Sakura gave Naruto a dark glare, and then looked at her father, who was sitting calmly in his armchair, both hands on his cane. "Dad, why did you leave my baby pictures out?"

Finally, Sasuke decided, Haruno-san was far, far from being as stern and unbending as he seemed at first glance, if one judged by his casual, innocent, "Hm?"

"Oh, honestly..." she grumped, hands on her hips.

Sasuke got up quickly, bowing in greeting to the woman -- forty-something, green eyes, graying blood-red hair -- who was standing behind Sakura.

"Hello, Haruno-san," he added, more for Naruto's benefit than his own. The blond turned around quickly, giving the woman a sheepish grin and an awkward bow modeled after Sasuke's. If one judged by her wary, unimpressed look, Naruto wasn't going to win her over that easily.

Her back to her mother, Sakura flashed a hand signal at Naruto, who blinked in confusion before connecting it with the situation. "Ah -- these are for you."

The woman stared at him, and then down at the flowers, as if she expected to see a muddy clump of insect-ridden wildflowers instead of the very professionally made bouquet. "... Sakura, go and fetch a vase, please."

Well, at least she ended up taking them, Sasuke thought with some desperation. And Sakura's father was looking quite amused.

"Dinner will be a few minutes," the woman added with some reluctance, giving Sasuke a long measuring look, too.

... She didn't look much happier with him than she did with Naruto. Damn it. From what Sakura said -- and didn't say -- he'd thought that she would approve of him a little more. Maybe she was just cranky.

Sakura came back, putting the vase on the table, and spent some time helping her mother to arrange it. Naruto drifted to the couch and sat down at Sasuke's side, looking uncomfortable once again.

"You were looking at these, I believe, Uzumaki-san?" the white-haired man asked softly, reaching to pick up a frame filled with family pictures.

"Oh, yeah!" Naruto leaned forward, glancing back at Sasuke. "Come on, take a look, it's kinda funny."

Sighing quietly, Sasuke obligingly leaned forward to look, too. There were a few baby pictures -- a picture of a three-year old Sakura with another tiny redhead who was probably family, a five-year old Sakura with a very serious frown as she read a book, and then a few more pictures of her receiving school awards, and a couple of shots from the ceremony of acceptance into the ninja academy.

He thought he saw himself in the background of one of them -- he'd been so happy to see that his father had actually decided to attend that he had been fighting a grin from the start of the ceremony to the end; maybe that was why Sakura hadn't recognized him. He didn't call attention to it.

"Wow, all those books."

"Yes, our daughter has always been smart," Sakura's mother interjected. "She learned to read at five, and she always was top of her class. If she had chosen a civilian school, she would probably be well on her way to a doctorate."

This, Sasuke thought, meant "my baby's way too smart for you", and was only confirmed when she asked, "where do you think you would be now, if you weren't ninjas?"

Naruto shrugged, apparently not even noticing her tone. "Eh, I don't know. Cooking ramen, maybe?" he suggested with a grin.

Sakura groaned, and then chuckled politely to cover it. "You and your ramen. Bah, this shouldn't surprise me; it would fit you well actually. And you, Sasuke-kun?"

"I never planned on being anything but a ninja."

"Hey, no fair," Naruto protested. "I never planned on that, either. If I have to think about it, you do, too."

"Fine," Sasuke grumbled. "A policeman, maybe."

"Bleh. All the Konoha cops go through the ninja academy first. You cheat."

Sakura giggled. "It's hard to imagine Sasuke-kun as anything else."

"You have never given any thought to whatever else you could have done with your life?" her mother asked them both, frowning sternly.

Naruto shrugged. "Uh. Not really, no. It's always been my dream. And Sasuke -- would they have let you become anything else?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Why would he have wanted to go against the clan tradition when he was so well-suited to it and liked it so much? "I could have become a scholar, if I had been so inclined. I wasn't."

"So there is no life beyond being a ninja for either of you," the woman commented, frowning more heavily. Sakura cringed.

"Mom..."

"Sakura, you didn't even know what their fall-back plans were? You, of all people, should know better--"

"Hana," the father interrupted her softly. "Hana, they are seventeen."

"You were seventeen!"

"And I still spent a few months looking for my way. And eventually found it. I am sure they would prove just as adaptable, if the need arose."

Naruto was busy staring at his feet. Sasuke knew this because it was more interesting to watch the blond from the corner of his eye than look straight at either of Sakura's parents; he didn't want to be forced to acknowledge the tension openly.

"...What's that smell?" Sakura commented, and moved to get up. Her mother waved her down, and hurried back to the kitchen without a word. Sakura sat back again with a quiet sigh, and when Sasuke looked up at her, she gave him one of the most unconvincing smiles he'd ever had aimed at him.

"... Hope the dinner doesn't burn," Naruto mumbled, and scratched his neck, grinning guiltily.

"My wife would never allow a dinner to burn," the man reassured him gently. "I must apologize. She worries."

"There's no need," Sasuke replied formally. "It is only natural for a parent to be concerned."

The man nodded in acknowledgement. "Indeed. And I wouldn't want to force either of you to think about unsavory possibilities, but it is better to be prepared. The life of a ninja is a dangerous one; as my wife has always been a civilian, she has trouble accepting how totally one could invest themselves into it."

Sasuke and Naruto nodded.

"You're not a civilian, ol -- sir?"

Sakura discreetly threatened Naruto with her fist for almost using "old man" again.

"Now I am," he replied easily, "but I went through the academy when I was younger."

Naruto grinned, presumably happy at finding common ground. "Oh, really? Were you strong?"

Haruno-san gave Naruto a dry, amused look. "I made Genin at fifteen. My crowning glory was getting flattened by a ten-year-old -- who, granted, would become the Fourth Hokage -- in under thirty seconds during my third attempt at Chuunin. A few months later, I lost the use of my leg and quit."

"...Oh."

Sasuke had better sense than to voice his reaction, however similar it was to Naruto's. That was... really mediocre. Even Naruto had graduated at twelve. Though -- he had expected something like that. High-level ninjas were usually from clans -- and they also rarely lived past thirty-five, unless they retired first.

At least the man didn't look insulted. "I met Hana during my rehabilitation. This is why she worries so much about this issue. However ill-suited I was for it, being a ninja was my dream as a teenager. Finding another way to make a living was... rather problematic at first. She doesn't want something like that to happen to any of you," he added diplomatically.

Sasuke privately thought that it was unlikely that the three of them would just happen to get incapacitated at the same time. Moreover, it was a lot safer financially to have two working adults and an unemployed one, than a couple where only one of the two was able to bring food to the table. Besides, Sakura's father sucked at being a ninja. They didn't.

"You're right, we gotta think of stuff like that," Naruto replied, frowning very seriously. It was a rather comical effect, really. Sasuke snorted softly. Naruto stuck his tongue out at him. "You're just jealous 'cause I'd be a better civilian than you."

Sasuke only stopped himself from snarking back that it was nothing to be proud of because Sakura's mother chose this moment to walk in and announce that dinner was ready.

The seating arrangement was... Hmm. Each parent at one end, with Sakura on one side, and Naruto and himself safely away on the other side. Maybe the Harunos were afraid the young men would grope Sakura under the table or something.

As if the table was too wide to prevent playing footsie, if they had been so inclined.

They exchanged some small talk during the entree. Weather, food. Sakura's mother seemed to relax a little, even unbending so far as to reply civilly to Naruto a couple of times, and her father didn't make Sasuke feel as if every little twitch was taken in and analyzed.

Then the conversation somehow shifted onto the flowers Naruto had brought -- he didn't mention that they had been Ino's sole responsibility, but admitting that he didn't have a clue how to choose them without help made the Harunos chuckle softly; private joke? The mood was getting better at least -- and then onto the Yamanakas. A nice family, yes, and more grounded in the civilian life than many, and, oh, would Sakura still be found there if her parents happened to be in the neighborhood?

Well. At least she could have asked that more bluntly. Sasuke decided that she probably didn't want things to get ugly -- yet -- or else she would have asked point-blank if they would be shacking up soon.

"Yes, mom, I'm still there. And going to be there a while, I think. We don't have the kind of income needed to get our own place yet."

"Hmm. Where do you young men live?" her father asked, turning to look at Naruto and him.

Sasuke shrugged. "We're sharing my apartment for now. It isn't a place to raise a child, though; it's only a small bachelor pad."

Hana closed her eyes briefly; her husband gazed down at the table, expressionless. Sasuke wondered what he had said, and then realized that none of them had even mentioned the word "child" or "baby" before; the whole reason why they were entering this weird relationship in the first place.

"Yeah, it's so tiny, there isn't even place for a second futon! I have to sleep on his couch and it really bl--OW." Naruto paled briefly at Sakura's murderous glare, and then grinned sheepishly. "I mean, it's really not comfortable."

"But have you started looking around, at least, to get an idea of the prices?"

"Um, not really, Mom. We've been kind of busy..."

Hana stared at her daughter. "What do you mean you've been busy? Isn't it important enough?"

"We had more urgent things to worry about," Sasuke intervened in a tone that implied the things in question were classified. "There's still time."

Hana didn't take the hint, or if she did, it only aggravated her. "More urgent! Like what? You haven't left Konoha once last month. What could be more important than having a good roof over your heads?"

Naruto blinked, bewildered. "It's not as if Sasuke's roof is leaking--"

Sasuke and Sakura kicked him at the same time, and only narrowly missed each other.

"It is good," her father commented mildly, "that you aren't demanding. But you will have to raise your standards. Children, especially young children, deserve the best their parents can get them, not merely the least they want to bother with."

Naruto stammered, "Ah -- it wasn't -- I didn't mean..."

"He is right. The baby needs the best you can possibly give. So what, exactly, could be more urgent?"

Sasuke glanced at Naruto quickly, and wondered if he, too, had understood that Sakura still hadn't told her parents exactly how dangerous the pregnancy was. But with the bewildered way he was looking between Sakura and her mother...

"The Chuunin exam," Sasuke interrupted coolly.

"You are planning on taking it?" Hana asked, bewildered.

"Yes, of course. If we don't, we'll have to wait until the baby is at least a few years old."

"But it's dangerous!" she protested.

"We got through it safely last time," Naruto intervened. "And we're loads better this time around."

Hana gave him a look that said he was missing the point by about ten miles. "But she's _pregnant_."

Naruto blinked. "It's only three months away -- she won't be that fat just yet, right?"

Sakura groaned. "Call me fat again and you'll end up wearing your food."

"It's not like it's a bad fat -- ick."

"Stop. Talking. Now."

Sasuke would have rolled his eyes, but he was caught by surprise by her mother's expression. Half "ah, stupid boys" annoyance, a familiar sight on her daughter's face, and half... reluctant amusement? Was she defrosting at last?

"It's still not very safe... Couldn't you wait until afterwards?"

"Mom, we already talked about this... I'll take months to get back into shape, we'll waste even longer."

"Waste -- is this a race?" Hana frowned, sternly.

"Well, all our friends are already Chuunin and all," Naruto replied, grimacing.

Sasuke frowned. The reminder grated. Still Genin at seventeen, that was pitiful.

"It doesn't mean we suck as ninjas -- they still give us C and B rank missions, they just pay us on the Genin scale -- but there was never a good time to pass the exam. Everyone was 'oh, maybe next year' and everything. It wasn't so bad because, yeah, we weren't going anywhere and we didn't need the money so bad; there was no reason to insist, but now that we're -- I mean, with the baby..." Naruto stole a glance at Sakura, who nodded encouragingly. "Being Chuunin means that we get paid more for the same stuff. And we're gonna need the money, just like you said, old man. Not next year, when Sasuke's stash will be empty from paying for the marriage and Sakura will be all tired and getting back into shape and the baby will be there already, but now, soon. So that's why," he finished, nodding determinedly, "we gotta make Chuunin."

Sasuke observed the Harunos as they exchanged long, thoughtful looks. Sakura was watching Naruto with faint surprise; and when the blond glanced back at her, vaguely nervous, she smiled.

"Naruto-san?" her father said softly.

Sasuke blinked. He'd addressed them by their family names before.

"My name is Yukihiro, not 'old man'," he finished, face crinkling as he smiled at the blond.

Naruto stared at him for a few seconds, confused, and then slowly started grinning. "All right, sorry... Yukihiro-san?"

Sakura's mother huffed, but didn't comment. Naruto was beaming as if -- Sasuke looked away.

As if he'd been given... things that Sasuke didn't want to think about -- love and acceptance, things that shouldn't have been so novel to him; if Sasuke thought about it too much it would make him -- angry, yes, and he had his own share of problems to rage at.

As if he'd been given all that and didn't care who knew. How could he let his happiness spill on his face like that? He was leaving himself wide open; it would be so easy to hurt him with a few words, and what was worse, that hurt would show, too. How could he stand to leave his feelings unprotected?

Frowning, Sasuke gave Sakura's mother a look, ready to alienate her forever by giving her the death-glare from hell if she even looked like she was considering taking a jab -- and found her picking at her plate, trying to hide a mildly conscience-stricken look.

... Well, he thought. Well. So maybe she wasn't entirely evil. It left him rather at a loss, though; he couldn't heal, but he could protect... but it seemed that Naruto and his wide-open heart didn't need his protection. And if he didn't have anything else to think about, he was going to start mulling over the reason why such a simple thing could affect the idiot so much, and he really, really didn't want to.

"Are you done, Uchiha-san?" Hana asked briskly, startling him. "Sakura? Everyone? I'll bring the next course."

She disappeared in the kitchen. More small talk ensued; Sasuke participated here and there as they ate, though he would have been at a loss to repeat exactly what he said later on.

They were almost done with dessert when Hana asked, politely, about Sakura's ring. Sasuke stiffened; it sounded like a loaded question. At least Sakura seemed delighted to show it off...

"And who...?" Hana asked, trailing off when she apparently couldn't find a polite way to ask.

Bingo.

"It was from both of us," Sasuke replied quietly.

"But I thought you were the one marrying her? That's a done decision, right?"

"I am."

"So if you are the one marrying her, why weren't you the one buying her this ring?"

_'Because I forgot.'_ Yeah, that would go well.

"She can't get engaged to both of you."

"That's exactly why," he replied; still making sure to keep his voice quiet, because he knew that otherwise it would sound haughty. It was almost painful how she just didn't get it.

Sakura closed her eyes briefly. Naruto's hand was clenched on his lap.

"Legally, it isn't possible to marry two people, however much one might want to. We had to choose, rationally, which one of us would be best received as a husband."

But in the end, he thought, so hard that he wasn't sure how they didn't hear, in the end it was just a piece of paper. The noble and ancient institution of marriage -- it didn't mean anything to him. What Sakura meant to him -- that wouldn't change because she would gain a new society-approved title. And what Naruto meant to him... there would never be enough words for it, and maybe that was fine. It was special; it was his own. He didn't want to fit them into a mold; compress some parts, cut off some others that had the misfortune of sticking out. He liked it the way it was, the three of them hopelessly tangled together in ways that totally defied common conventions.

"But you still plan on allowing... On -- afterwards..." She paused, waving at Naruto, visibly searching for words. Sakura was tense, eyes still closed in weariness; Sasuke wondered how many times they'd had this argument in private already.

It wasn't cheating if they were all in the same bed, he thought, and fought to find a way to formulate it diplomatically. In the end, "yes" was all he could reply. She looked at him as if he'd just admitted to planning weekly orgies with whichever neighbors felt like dropping in, and got up, starting to gather the dishes. Her expression shuttered, she disappeared, once again, into the kitchen.

Naruto and Sakura were hanging their heads like a pair of kicked puppies, and her husband's face was empty of expression again.

Sasuke got up too, bowing quickly at Yukihiro before following her.

"Haruno-san."

He clenched his fists briefly as he stared at her tense shoulders; he wasn't sure what to say, he just knew that he had to say something to salvage the situation.

"We both ... have... strong feelings for her," he murmured, violently uncomfortable.

He hadn't even told them that to their faces; he didn't want to say anything to this woman. But -- if it shut her up. Maybe it would be worth it. Maybe. He couldn't care less about her feelings; but he couldn't stand the thought of making Sakura choose between her parents and her team. If his own mother -- stop. Stop. Don't think about that.

"But you'll get jealous," she whispered, frustrated, and too caught up in her own internal monologue to notice Sasuke's own distraction. "You'll get jealous and kick him out eventually -- he'll cause arguments between you and Sakura, it isn't possible to share someone you love like this..."

"No."

She stared at him as if he was speaking an alien language.

"Naruto... There was a point in my life where I could have... thrown it all away."

He felt sick; he didn't want to share that, didn't -- it was safe when it was locked away, out of his mind where he didn't have to deal with it anymore.

"My -- friends -- my team. The village. I could have -- you know about that. And he brought me back." He repeated, softly, "He brought me back. So I won't -- I will not be jealous of him. The idea is preposterous."

"You love him," she replied softly, peering at him, visibly confused.

Startled, he could only shrug, and only force of habit kept him from spluttering angrily; even under torture, he wouldn't answer that.

"... Like -- like you love Sakura?"

"No," he replied with a snort, "not at all."

She stared at him a while longer, and then relaxed. Sasuke hid away all traces of emotion; if she wanted to be relieved by her assumption that his feelings for Naruto were born out of pure, platonic gratitude, he wasn't going to say anything.

He stood in silence for a few seconds longer, and then, nodding a salute, he returned to the dining room. Three pairs of eyes stared up at him. Uncomfortable, he rolled his eyes briefly, and -- of course -- targeted Naruto. He was the most blatant anyway. "Do I have something on my face?"

Naruto glared at him, but before he could retort something loud and probably unfit for polite company -- not a wise move on Sasuke's part, to provoke him -- Sakura intervened. "Um, Sasuke-kun... did..."

"Everything's alright," he replied with a sigh, and sat down again, trying to ignore his teammates' curious looks.

Yukihiro chuckled. "So you are secretly a diplomat, I see."

Sasuke couldn't help it; he stared at the man incredulously. Half a second later, Sakura and Naruto choked on a burst of laughter. Sakura politely pretended to have been coughing, but Naruto had to press both hands to his mouth to stifle his laugher. Yukihiro had adopted a ponderous, benevolent expression that didn't entirely hide the mirth in his eyes.

"Oh yeah," Naruto snickered. "He's like... a special diplomat. An Interrogation Squad diplomat."

"Naruto, shut it before I make you."

Naruto rolled his eyes, but sobered up, lowering his voice as he glanced toward the door worriedly. "No, seriously, are you sure --"

"_Yes_. But maybe you'd like to go and make sure?" Sasuke growled, challenging the blond with a harsh glare.

"Does either of you young men drink tea?" Hana inquired briskly from the door. "Coffee?"

Naruto grinned guiltily. "Ah -- either is fine... Though--"

"Tea," Sakura intervened, giving Naruto a quick glare before he could ask for coffee, and then glanced quickly at Sasuke. "They'll both have tea."

Sasuke frowned -- he didn't want to drink anything -- but let it slide. He had a feeling anything he said at the moment would be too aggressive, and it wasn't the time or place to rip into either of his teammates. Crossing his arms, he attempted to smooth his expression. They wouldn't be expected to stay long after dinner; it was late after all. Then he'd go and lock himself in his bedroom, and if Naruto made noise he would kick him out and beat him up in the building's courtyard. They were about due for another row.

"Sakura, why don't you go and help your mother with tea?" Yukihiro suggested softly.

Sasuke tensed, looking up sharply.

"Dad--"

"Sakura, please."

Naruto glanced at Sasuke quickly. Sasuke shrugged minutely; nothing they could do. The blond grinned at Sakura in reassurance that they would survive. She sighed, giving them a quick, worried look before departing. She probably had the same thought as them; "divide and conquer." It would be easier to sound them for cracks if they weren't covering for each other... argh. It wasn't a mission, and Sakura's father wasn't Intelligence, damn it; he was barely a Genin.

"Sir?" Sasuke asked, going on the offensive.

Yukihiro huffed and leaned back in his chair. "I have no real say; Sakura is of legal age to make her own decisions. Ultimately, my opinion on your arrangement isn't all that important either. But..." He placed his elbows on the table, lacing his fingers together. "There are still worries I would like to lay to rest, if you don't mind."

Sasuke considered him for a few seconds in silence, wondering why the man hadn't become a negotiator.

"Uh, sure, shoot. Wait, no! Don't shoot."

Yukihiro chuckled softly. "Don't worry. I wouldn't want to splash blood on the carpet."

Naruto gulped. Somehow that had failed to reassure him; not that it reassured Sasuke. Well, damn, the old washout wouldn't have been half-bad at Interrogation himself.

The man turned to face Naruto, expression suddenly turning grimmer. "You do realize the stress and danger Sakura, and presumably the child, will face by being with you, don't you?"

Sasuke's hand clenched spasmodically on his thigh; but he didn't have any kunai with him. At his side, Naruto had gone frozen, staring at Sakura's father in shocked betrayal. Slowly, Naruto's hand rose, hovering over his stomach.

"Because of the Kyuubi?"

"Yes."

"You think he's gonna burst out and eat them," Naruto replied, quietly. "I thought... No, nothing."

Sasuke suddenly wanted to kill the man a lot more than he'd ever wished to kill his wife.

"I find myself liking you, Naruto-san... And the Yondaime was a great man, a genius. Both Sandaime and Godaime trusted his handiwork. Who am I to doubt them?"

Naruto's head jerked up; Yukihiro looked pained.

"Fair or not, though, you are still an outcast in most circles. And if you live with Sakura, you will drag her down with you. How do you plan on taking care of that?"

Sasuke bristled. How dare he put it all on Naruto's shoulders -- Naruto goddamnit don't look like that -- don't...

"...They don't have to know," the blond finally replied with a smile that Sasuke wanted to punch off his face, never to see again. "I'd be all right with just passing as a roommate."

"You would hide it, then?"

Sasuke's blunt nails were leaving gouges into his palms. But he wasn't welcome to take part in the discussion.

Naruto scowled briefly, hands clenched in his lap. "No! I just... wouldn't mention it. Unless people ask for it and I think they have a right to know."

"People will gossip."

Naruto gave the man a stubborn glare. "The gossips can go hang for all I care."

Sasuke wondered when exactly his hand had landed on Naruto's wrist. He was probably leaving bruises by now. But the blond wasn't protesting.

"I'm not gonna be ashamed," Naruto added, glowering fiercely. "If it was just me I wouldn't care who knew. But... it's not just me, so I'll keep it quiet. People are always watching what Sasuke's doing, and Sakura-chan isn't used to being stared at like that -- like they watch him, and like they watch me... And then there's the baby... But I'm not gonna sneak in and out in the night either. I'm not."

"You better not," Sasuke managed to growl past the lump in his throat.

Yukihiro watched them in silence, then sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Well, at least you are a lot more aware of the issue than I thought you would be. And no doubt Sakura will grow more resilient with time. This does mean no public displays of affection, though..."

"Oh, come on," Sasuke snapped, at the end of his rope. "We're ninjas. If people want to spy on us looking for little signs, they'll find them. They'll probably find them more between them than with me."

"... and why is that? I thought you three were equally..."

"Because I hate being pawed at." He tossed his head impatiently, and pushed back a lock of hair that had been tickling his cheek for the past half-hour; damn Sakura's hair gel. "So they'll gossip. So what? I agree with Naruto; they can go hang, I don't give a damn. And if the baby has blond hair, it will be more than a few speculative whispers behind our backs. So? We'll deal."

"You two might be used to it," the man replied somberly, making Naruto wince guiltily.

Sasuke scoffed at them both. "You all treat Sakura as if she's made of china. She's sturdier than that; and if she was less sheltered, she might even notice. She'll mope a bit, and then she'll decide that the gossip-mongers are a bunch of brainless twits and get over it."

Yukihiro frowned faintly. "...Is that really what you think?"

Sasuke's eye twitched, but he worked on getting it under control. He shrugged, pushing the lock of hair away again. He didn't want to snap at the old man; he'd already been too blunt.

"She doesn't trust in herself; so long as we're taking front, she stands back, and lets us deal with the heavy violence. But when push comes to shove, I haven'tseen her run away yet. She won't run from that either."

Naruto stared at him, and then grinned widely. "Hee. I'm so telling her that you said that."

Sasuke didn't have the time to threaten Naruto with violence to make sure he kept quiet.

"Well, if you are sure that you can deal with this little matter appropriately, there are a few others, Uchiha-san. None of the other clans will object, or feel slighted?"

Sasuke was thrown off-track by the realization that the man was actually aware of clan politics. "...It's not like any of them can push for an alliance via arranged marriage. I can't marry anyone from a clan without endangering my bloodline."

"Mmh. I also assume that you do not wish to leave the village any longer."

That, Sasuke noted distractedly through the faint buzzing in his ears, was probably revenge for the accusation of coddling Sakura earlier. He swiftly dodged the hand that Naruto was lifting to rest on his shoulder, and realized belatedly that things were too clear and flowed together too neatly; he had slipped into the Sharingan.

"Sasuke--"

He closed his eyes briefly, shoving his feelings down, deep down below where they couldn't touch him, and reopened his eyes. Black. Better.

"I am not," he hissed, "going to abandon my family. Ever."

Naruto looked like he was about to try a desperate tackle to save Yukihiro's life. Sasuke had better control than that.

"Not even if the child is blond?"

... Sasuke had better control than that. He did. He really did. He closed his eyes again, though; just in case.

"No."

Naruto snickered weakly. "Hey, you never know, he or she could be a nine-headed redhead with the hand-wings things you got from the cursed seal."

Sasuke glared at him, and had the satisfaction of seeing him wilt. "This isn't funny."

"Ah, lighten up, okay?"

If they had been alone, it would have been his cue for a "No, not okay" and a punch in the face. Sasuke glared at Naruto, silently promising to save it for later.

"You have no sense of humor."

"Not about my family, no," he growled back.

Sasuke stared hard at Naruto for a moment longer, until the idiot stopped muttering, and then turned to face Yukihiro. "Do you have any more... concerns?" If he had any, he could stuff them up his ass.

Yukihiro was still cutting him open with his eyes, still calm and poised and neutral enough to make Sasuke snarl. "Mmh. You seem to have decided to do your best as a husband and father. I wish you and your clan the best, Uchiha-sama."

The man even added a deliberate respectful nod.

Sasuke was suddenly past caring, though.

He was going to have a clan again.

He was going to have a clan again, and he had nowhere to house it, nothing to feed it with, and he was still too weak to protect it.

And Itachi was still out here.

Itachi was still out here, and if he didn't know yet about the child, he probably would soon.

... and then what? What would happen? What could Sasuke do? He'd grown stronger, yes; but so had his brother, more than probably. And Sasuke was still locked inside Konoha until further notice -- until they trusted him again.

He needed more fights, more experience -- badly. He needed more money -- the pay scale of a Genin wouldn't work anymore. He needed to corner Kakashi and force more techniques out of him. Kakashi and -- who else would teach him? Orochimaru was dead, and most other Jounin...

"Sasuke? Here's your tea," Sakura offered quietly. She didn't meet his eyes; he wondered what his expression looked like -- how long she and her mother had been listening in. The woman was serving Naruto, neutral -- but when Naruto offered a little smile and his thanks, Sasuke caught Hana's lips quirking up weakly in response.

He hadn't even heard them come back.

But Itachi...

No. Not now. Now was the time to listen to more small talk, and even -- sort of, cautiously -- to participate. A little. Now was the time to hum and nod, leaning over pictures of another family.

Now was not the time to think about his brother, leaning over a crib.

* * *

He walked alongside his teammates for two blocks, and then let them continue on. He said he didn't want to be groped by Ino again; they heard, "I want to be alone," and let him go. 

He ignored the worry in their eyes. He couldn't take it now; he had a mission.

The solution was so evident now; and if he hadn't been trying to pretend that it didn't exist...

Well. One problem. One. But that was alright. One thing at a time.

One thing. Meaning, not the dinner. The dinner had gone fine.

... It had gone, at least. It had been... edible. Sakura's mother cooked well.

_"How do you plan on supporting your family?"_

She could have been in a better mood, though it hadn't ended too badly. Sakura's father --

Sasuke slipped into the shadows and put on a burst of speed. Faster than the eye could see -- he probably didn't have a tail, but you never knew.

Sakura's father had been polite, formal -- visibly trying to accept, for Sakura's sake, her desire to live with two men. Even if he didn't get it.

Her mother quite visibly resented Naruto for existing, and Sasuke for allowing Naruto to push himself into what would have been a perfect match and turning it into something her daughter was going to be scorned about -- something dirty, perverted.

Sakura might want Sasuke, but she would never be happy if she caught him for herself; he didn't have it in him to make anyone happy. No one understood how much they needed Naruto to be there, how essential he was; how without him Sasuke would just make Sakura miserable, and Sakura would just take it and keep hoping for something he couldn't give.

_"Where are you planning on living?"_

Together. They planned on living together; that was the most important thing. "Where" didn't matter so much.

Besides, Naruto was right; soon they'd be Chuunins. More money, better places.

_"What if you don't all make Chuunin?"_

They'd make do; they'd try again next time. It wouldn't be forever.

It hadn't convinced Yukihiro any more than it convinced Sasuke. The man hadn't needed to say anything for Sasuke to hear; "this is not good enough."

Sasuke vaulted over a fence, leaped to the closest tree -- ran up the trunk, kicking off when gravity started calling him back; landed in a crouch on moonlit tiles, and looked down at the wall sprawling along the next avenue.

On the surface, the dinner had gone ... not alright, but okay -- no huge, irreconcilable arguments, no yelled insults, no "It's them or us!" Even with Sakura being nervous and doing her best -- too much -- to smooth everything out, Naruto being way too friendly and grinning too often -- also nervous -- and Sasuke himself falling back on perfect manners that made it look, if he read Sakura's mother right, like he was looking down on them as being too low-class.

...Okay, so it had been something of a low-scale, stealth disaster.

That was in the past now. The present...

He dropped down the side of the house, walked down to the gate, reached up to tear off the yellow police tape. And walked inside, letting it flutter to the ground behind him.

The worst part was that nothing had changed at all. Everything was exactly as it had been that night -- except from the blinding absence of the corpses and the puddles of blood, but he could remember them so well that it didn't make much of a difference.

There was more dust, true, and grass was poking through the pavement, but ... But. No one had closed this half-open door, no one had righted that overturned display -- not even him, the one who could have. Should have.

Hadn't.

But -- later. Not right now. Right now, he couldn't. If he allowed himself to get sidetracked now, he would never reach his goal.

The sound of his steps rang between the houses. He refused to hurry up; hearing the echo of his run down these empty streets was asking for a flashback.

He pushed away the aching familiarity, tried to see the district as critically as possible. Left without upkeep for so many years, the houses were in a sad state. He could see cracked plaster, broken windows, doors stuck in place as the wood swelled with humidity. But the basic construction was generally sound, and most of the buildings would only need a bit of work to be livable again.

There were more and more people moving into Konoha these days, attracted by the growing success and influence of the Village; if he looked around, maybe he could find people who wouldn't care about what had happened there ten years ago. And if he had regular tenants -- say, four, five families at least -- for houses of such quality, his children would never need to worry about going hungry.

Maybe the echo of new voices would banish the memories. Maybe with other vendors calling to passersby and other grandmas chattering in the square and other children playing in the streets ...

Maybe his own children...

He stopped in his tracks, looking up at the wall marked with his clan's fan -- with the kunai mark still right in the middle -- then turned and stared at the door of his home long and hard before his hand rose to push it open.

His children would play in this street, and run through this door -- dragging toys behind them as they walked out, swinging school bags around as they came back -- his children would...

His children would...

... he couldn't. He couldn't see them here. He could only see the door his father had held open for him when he'd been too small to do it on his own, and the kitchen window through which his mother had waved to him everyday, and the hall -- where he'd greeted his big brother -- the gallery where he'd stubbed his toes so many times -- the sliding doors that made that neat noise when snapping closed, and open, and closed, _snap! woosh-snap! Sasuke! Will you stop that? _And his father's office, forbidden, fascinating territory -- the corridor that led to his bedroom, and the other door -- his little hand raised to knock softly -- _'tachi, there's something in my closet_ ...

He couldn't. He couldn't. He could see nothing but his past in here. Nothing but his pain. As hard as he tried, he couldn't see Naruto napping, sprawled against the ancient, gnarled tree by the little pond, or Sakura walking barefoot under the shade of the galleries. He couldn't see any children but himself -- him and Itachi -- and he'd thought he'd decided not to let his past hold him back anymore, but it wasn't as easy as that.

Tolerating the Uchiha district again was one thing, so long as he did all he could to make it look different -- paint the houses, plant bushes and trees, knock down a few walls maybe -- but no amount of redecorating would change this place, where he'd lived since birth, enough to separate it from his memories. No amount of varnish would hide the outlines of two bodies in the dojo, and the dark stains in the wood planks.

He had to -- his teammates-- his family -- they needed a place to live, a place big enough for all of them, and why make it so complicated when it was so simple? He owned the house already, they didn't have to spend any money, they just had to move in, that was the perfect solution -- but he couldn't.

He had to, and he couldn't. He wasn't even able to suck it up and stop feeling sorry for himself, not even for his future wife, not even for his lover, for their unborn child, for his new family. He was so fucking selfish, and even his disgust at his own weakness didn't change a thing. There was just no way he could, and that was it.

It was dark; it didn't matter. Slowly, so slowly, he stepped inside -- unable to stop the ingrained habit to pause and take off his sandals -- started walking down the hall -- to the kitchen, he made himself go to the kitchen, not to go to his parents' bedroom first; of course there was nothing of importance there, nothing he wanted to keep. The laundry room was the same -- he'd hidden behind that big porcelain sink, had poked at the drying sheets, puzzled by their heaviness; his mother had smiled, sometimes even laughed, clear and high and so pure -- the corridor was empty but for the paintings on the walls. No sentimental value to these; he took down a few scrolls with beautiful calligraphies and rolled them up, stuck them under his arm -- even water-stained, maybe they would be worth something -- he was stalling again, of course.

He didn't want anything from his bedroom, and nothing in the world would make him step inside his brother's. His father's study looked less imposing -- Sasuke had grown up; the magic was gone. The magic, and that man so serious, so stern, so reserved -- he opened the drawers quickly, efficiently, going through the room in the precise search pattern they'd been taught in class. There were no papers he wanted, except for medical info and the Uchiha clan register -- a long, heavy scroll with gold tassels that joined the paintings under his arm. Inadvertently, he knocked a picture frame face-down on the desk, and didn't bother righting it up. A scroll on advanced Katon jutsus found its way in his belt pouch. Then that was it.

The dojo -- no. No way in hell. Not even if piles of gold and riches were inside.

What else could he want? Clothes? No. Furniture? Hell no. Knickknacks? Unnecessary. Weapons? He had enough of his own, and his parents had never bothered to put money into bejeweled swords or intricate blades when a plain, simple kunai did the work. As for their Konoha headbands, they'd been buried with them.

With measured steps -- he wasn't going to run out -- he walked toward the exit, calmly stepped back into his sandals, walked out in the garden -- Sakura had said she wanted a pond, but this one was full of green stuff and stank with dead fish and mud -- crossed through the dried beds of flowers, and dumped his findings by the far wall.

Then he turned back to face the house -- _home_ -- and didn't let his sight blur as he shaped the seals for the first major jutsu he had ever performed.

As the fire roared through the house, he could hear his father -- _As expected, you are my son..._ -- and his home burned, and the gallery in which he'd sat by Itachi's side -- _Of course I'm sure that Father loves you, little brother_ -- blackened, and the windows -- _Welcome home, Sasuke-chan! So, what did you learn today?_ -- exploded, and the roof -- _Hey, how goes, bratling? Is your brother in? _-- caved in -- _Sasuke-chan? Where are you? _--and he could see nothing -- _Surprise! So, who's a big boy today? _-- but fire and smoke and destruction -- _Hurry up, little brother, or I'll go without you _-- as he blew more and more power into the blaze, and the smoke was harsh and he had to close his eyes and pour even more chakra into the jutsu -- it wasn't enough, he could still see -- he could still remember -- and the smoke stung so much, stung his eyes and scratched at his throat -- he couldn't breathe ...

And there were arms around him, strong arms, and a large, solid chest against his back, and he could breathe again, in big, gulping gasps, and soft hands slid behind his nape and pressed his face against a tender neck. He clung to her, hiding in her arms, knowing that the man at his back would keep on clinging to him.

They didn't try to talk, and for that he was grateful. He didn't want to explode or to break down for a misinterpreted word. He just wanted them there. He didn't want to have either of them remark on the way the smoke choked him and stung his eyes, because he knew that then it would cease to be smoke and become something infinitely more shameful. If he let go of even an inch more, he'd break, and he wasn't sure he would be able to put himself back together again. So he stayed there, sitting in Naruto's lap and Sakura straddling his own, not caring about the way he'd ended in that position, and he held onto them and they held onto him and finally, finally the past let go.

"Well," Naruto said -- and in his voice there was nothing but his normal good cheer, a hint of stifled laughter, "if you tell us where we can find some water here, Sakura can test her new Suiton jutsu."

Sasuke blinked against her skin, feeling his damp eyelashes brush her neck, making her shiver, and they both turned to look at Naruto quizzically. He was grinning, just a touch softer than he usually did -- the light of the fire made his hair look like it was burning -- and Sasuke was grateful that the blond was going to pretend things were okay; maybe Sakura would follow Naruto's lead. He didn't want to talk about his feelings, now or ever.

"Why?" she asked, her fingers still playing absently with the strands of hair at Sasuke's nape.

"To stop it before it spreads to the whole district, of course."

And Naruto was grinning so widely, and seemed to find it such a grand joke, that Sasuke almost forgot to jump on his feet and hurry off to put out the blaze.

By the time they'd gotten it under control, they were dirty with soot from head to toe, and frazzled. When the firemen noticed the smoke and came to investigate, the three of them were sitting in the garden, on the edge of a great charred pile, and laughing themselves breathless for no reason at all.

For the record, Sakura's Suiton jutsu was only slightly more efficient than throwing water with an old, empty flowerpot. But seeing as she'd gotten the water for it from the half-dried pond, maybe that wasn't so surprising.

The firemen let them help a bit, but only because there were also cops around to keep an eye on them; and the second they were sure the fire was under control, the trio was briskly herded down the streets. Sasuke didn't really care what the cops did, nor did he listen to what was said; Naruto's arm was around his shoulders and Sakura's around his waist, holding him up, and if that made him look like he was drunk, well, whatever.

The harsh, white ceiling lights of the police station were blinding after the dying fire's. Sasuke realized absently that he would have to buy Naruto another shirt; his nice one was covered in burnt holes. And Sakura had sooty lines smeared over her face.

And he also realized that the cops hadn't recognized him before, in the dark; now that they were inside the station, the angry muttering that he'd been tuning out shone by its absence.

"Well, I'll be... Sasuke-kun?"

He looked up, blinking dazedly at the grizzled old man peering at him.

"... You won't remember me, it's been too long, but -- ah. Come on, the three of you. No, no, Matsuda, it's alright, I'll handle it."

Sasuke followed where Naruto guided, and sat down when the blond dragged him down on a bench at his side. Sakura took place on his other side, perched at the edge of the bench. She looked nervous; it was hard to care about anything, but he still nudged her with his knee. Naruto was a solid presence at his side, which was good because he was listing a little.

"...Alcohol? Drugs?"

"No, sir, just, uh, stress..."

Sasuke opened his eyes, straightened up -- he'd almost blacked out, he couldn't let himself slip -- and met the cop's eyes.

"I'm sober. It was just... time for some spring cleaning."

The police officer looked horribly understanding; pitying, even, but by then Sasuke had rebuilt enough of his control to smother any emotional reaction that tried to arise past his exhaustion.

"... I see."

The cop didn't ask him anything else, questioning Sakura and Naruto instead. The two idiots didn't want to inculpate him, and kept mumbling and glancing at each other.

"They weren't there," he grumbled, stopping them. "They came later." Idiots really should know that he'd get more leeway than either of them, just on account of this guy having worked with his clan before the... Before.

He didn't really listen to the rest of the explanation; he just listened to their voices, eyes closed.

He ended up getting what amounted to a slap on the wrist. A slightly expensive slap on the wrist, but all the same, nothing like what it could have been. He would get a fine for arson and reckless endangerment -- though the charges were nothing like what he could have faced if the house had been anywhere but in the middle of an empty, walled-off district -- and that was it. He didn't much care, really.

They weren't done with all the legalities before dawn, and by then the three of them were so exhausted that they didn't even try walking home just yet. By wordless agreement, Naruto and Sakura found a bench in a street off the main avenue and sat him down; his head ended up on Sakura's shoulder. Naruto disappeared; Sasuke didn't know how long. Sakura's hand was in his hair again. So much for the hair gel; but he didn't protest.

When Naruto came back, he held pastries. Sasuke hadn't known it was that late. Or early. The pastries were warm. Sakura, too, warm and soft, and Naruto, warmer and harder. He wanted to push them away, to extract himself and get up and tell them that he was all right and they didn't need to coddle him. But they were still not saying anything, so he decided that he could wait five minutes. And five minutes longer. And maybe a little more.

Then there were steps running down the avenue, light and swift -- blonde ponytail trailing behind a girl -- he pushed himself off the bench just as Sakura gasped, "Ino!" By the time the other girl had heard and backtracked to their street, he was standing a few feet away with his arms crossed; and when she joined them he had his expression under control again.

Naruto was sitting on the edge of the bench, as if he was contemplating reaching out and grabbing him, but thankfully he didn't; Ino distracted him by coming to a stop in front of the bench, hands on her hips. Still panting lightly, she gave Sakura a reproachful look.

"Geez, forehead-girl, I was waiting up for you! You weren't at your parents' being a good girl; you weren't at Sasuke's getting laid; you weren't anywhere!"

Huffing, Ino plopped down on the bench in the spot Sasuke had vacated. Naruto winced as he scooted aside to give her some space; Ino stared at him with suddenly round eyes. "Oops... Did I interrupt necking time?"

Sasuke heard Sakura groan behind him; he was turned away, though, and didn't see her expression.

"We were just... talking."

Ino snickered. "Oh, I see. 'We were just... um... TALKING.' Sure, real convincing there. I know I'm convinced."

Sasuke gritted his teeth.

Behind him, Naruto sighed. "Oi, Ino, mind not tap-dancing on the ruined moment?"

"... Oops."

There were a few shuffling sounds, presumably accompanied by sheepish looks, eye-rolls or shrugs, and then the interloper stood back up. "I think I'll go back home now... Sakura, what are you doing now?"

Sasuke turned back to look at his teammates. Sakura was giving him a questioning look.

"Well, it depends," she muttered, still looking at him askance.

Sasuke shrugged, working on not frowning at her. "I'm going back to the apartment to sleep." He just wanted to stop feeling empty and cold, and he had already abused their willingness to tolerate his weakness for too long.

"Yeah, I'll be going too," Naruto added with a yawn, as he picked a few crumbs of pastries from his clothes. He had changed them, Sasuke noticed now; he was wearing a too-large t-shirt that had probably belonged to some cop. So long as Ino didn't think to ask about it...

Sakura sighed softly, and then turned to Ino, who was waiting a few steps away, looking slightly uncomfortable. "Guess I'll go back with you, Ino-pig."

"Okay. Well, um... Goodnight, Naruto, Sasuke," Ino replied with a sheepish smile. "And sorry for interrupting..."

Sasuke's eyes slid over her. "See you tomorrow, Sakura," he commented as he passed his teammates and walked off. He heard a few more whispered exchanges behind him, and then Naruto caught up with him.

The blond didn't try to hold his hand or anything too familiar, but he bumped into Sasuke's shoulder a lot. Sasuke pretended not to notice.

He just wanted to go to bed. Sleep. Hopefully not dream. He climbed the stairs mechanically; stepped in the shower to get rid of the soot and mud -- it didn't get rid of the heaviness weighting his limbs down -- and then went to his bedroom, not even bothering to turn on the light as he dragged himself to his bed.

He sat on the edge, fell back, and stared at the ceiling.

Well... now he didn't even have a house for the three of them anymore. And he really didn't like the idea of moving into another apartment. But -- he might as well save as much money as possible. Which implied that they needed to start sharing the rent three ways instead of two as soon as they could. It implied...

... God, he just wanted to stop thinking for a minute. Where had the blankness of total emotional exhaustion gone?

"Hey."

He lifted his head and looked up; Naruto was standing just outside the door.

"What do you want?"

"Oi! Do I have to want something? Maybe I was just walking by and my feet got tired. And hey! Doorjamb to prop me up."

The tone didn't fit the words; it wasn't teasing or defensive. It was kind of amused, but neutral too; as neutral as Naruto ever got.

At least the blond wasn't stupid enough to try sounding soothing. The day Sasuke needed soothing from Naruto, of all people... He let that thought trail off before he had to remind himself of recent events. Posturing was too much work at the moment.

"... Naruto..." Sasuke sighed, giving the intruder a weary look.

"It was open," Naruto replied, more quietly.

Sasuke closed his eyes, and let his head fall back on the covers; he considered explaining to Naruto that forgetting to close his door didn't actually imply an invitation to invade his space, nor did it imply that he wanted Naruto in there. Because he didn't.

"It was open," he finally admitted softly.

The mattress dipped under Naruto's weight; his knee bumped into Sasuke's as he swung it lazily. Sasuke frowned faintly, opening his eyes again to glance up at his teammate. Naruto wasn't sitting too close, and he wasn't even looking toward Sasuke; leaning back on his hands, he was contemplating the ceiling.

"I got an idea."

"Did it hurt?"

Naruto flashed him a quick grin. "Oh yeah, honey, but it was the good kind of pain -- kidding, kidding."

Sasuke rolled his eyes; more because it was the minimal reaction Naruto expected from him than anything else. "What about?"

"Not about the money -- we'll just have to make Chuunin. And we so totally will."

Sasuke snorted, smirked faintly at his stubborn look. "Me, maybe. You..." He paused, shook his head. "What was your grand idea about? How to scam people out of their fortunes?"

"Nah, it's not about the money, or where we're gonna live, or all that shit -- we'll find a way, really. No, it's more important."

Naruto let himself fall back onto the mattress, laying down by Sasuke's side, and crossed his hands behind his head with false casualness. Sasuke frowned at him, and wondered why he wasn't just blurting it out.

"It's about the baby."

Sasuke pushed himself up on his elbows to stare down at the blond. Naruto was looking up at him, unnervingly serious.

He could, Sasuke realized dazedly; Naruto really could fix it -- save the child and Sakura. Or he thought he could, anyway. For a second, Sasuke hated Naruto blindingly for giving him hope when Sasuke had been so utterly trapped, and had already surrendered to the knowledge that everything was out of his hands.

But this was Naruto; hope against all odds was pretty much his trademark.

"... Talk," Sasuke rasped out; hope stirring under the apathy.

Naruto talked.

Naruto's ideas, Sasuke had learned over the course of the last five years, were sometimes very idiotic, for the very obvious reason that sane people didn't DO that. At any other time, Sasuke would have said "no" on principle after the first sentence; it sounded... quite demented. Besides, it would rest mostly on Naruto's shoulders, and Sasuke didn't really like thinking that his role would be minimal.

Then again -- Naruto's "idea" would need a serious amount of refining and smoothing down the rough edges, and he wasn't going to do it himself. Thoughtful, Sasuke grunted an acknowledgement when Naruto finally fell silent, already starting to think about the problems he could see.

"... So?"

It was crazy. It would be complicated, and dangerous, and if the Council caught them in the act, they would definitely be unhappy with the three of them.

But by God, he was tired of sitting on his ass and letting outside forces roll him around.

"Why not," he said. "I'll start the research."

He wasn't done pushing himself up when Naruto dragged him back down onto the mattress. The blond rolled onto his side, throwing an arm across Sasuke's chest and pinning him down. "Tomorrow, Sasuke."

Sasuke growled wearily. "Naruto--"

Naruto's arm wouldn't budge.

"Let's get some sleep first. I swear it will keep. Alright?"

The window was gilded with pink and gold. In the bedroom, it was still dark; dark enough that he could pretend that he couldn't see Naruto, if he wanted to; that he could pretend the anchoring weight across his chest was just a pillow.

Sasuke closed his eyes; listened to Naruto breathe. The blond was quiet and steady, warm and just so _there_.

"... Alright. Tomorrow."


	6. Naruto : The Plan, part a

How is it that every time I talk about my reviewers, I talk about the one or two who piss me off, and don't say anything about the dozens who make me feel happy?

So here it is, people. You make me happy. The two-pages-long detailed analysis and the "AW! That was SO cute!" one-liners, the "I don't usually like het, but" and the "I usually don't read yaoi, but" and the "I never read threesomes, but" and the "wow, another threesome whore like me!" and everyone in between. You make me happy and glowy and walking-on-clouds-y and I'm just plain addicted to you. Thank you. (/utter sap)

This chapter merits its R-rating, yay! It starts with NaruSasu kissies, goes through SasuSaku cuteness, NaruSaku making out, and ends up with a good threesomely session. (no, I don't mean full-out graphic sex; FFnet means fade-to-black, sorry. :p)

(Oh, and if I take so long to update, it isn't because I'm not writing at all in between, it's because the chapters are getting longer and longer. The last chapter was 47 pages long, this one is going to be even longer; I've had to cut it in half. There's rarely two weeks without my adding another little scene to the fic, but it isn't really like I can add ten pages a week all the time so that I can post a chapter a month, either; I'd die or something. XD Please be patient? Or go to my LJ to check out the latest news -- link's in my profile. :p)

Beta by Windshades -- you're amazing, babe. Thank you.

**Chapter 6: The Plan (part a)**

**(Naruto)**

_/You've got two bitches and you still wake up alone. Train them better already./_

Naruto blinked sleepily at the hollow in the mattress at his side, and pouted as he realized that he was indeed alone. The sheet only retained the barest hint of warmth. It figured; he was already surprised that he hadn't been kicked out during the night when Sasuke regained his senses and his usual attitude toward physical closeness. Naruto could hear the shower running, though; the bastard wasn't very far away.

_/The pink slut is. What are you letting her live elsewhere for/ _

Naruto winced as the fox threw memories of gutted females to the front of his mind, fetuses torn out -- when they hadn't been devoured. It was, apparently, a delicacy. _/So very tender./_ Kyuubi didn't think much of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

_'No one's gonna eat the baby, furball. Humans don't eat each other,'_ he replied grouchily.

Kyuubi didn't seem very convinced. Naruto caught a flash of two vixens, a pink one and a blond one, curled together in a burrow, hiding from big bad predators. /_Needs a male there/_ he rumbled musingly. To protect them; and also to mount them a lot.

Naruto yawned, and tried not to think about bad stuff; it was too early in the morning. Besides, if he translated Kyuubi's vixens into humans... heh. Hehehe. Yeeah, he'd had that fantasy a couple of times in the last years. "Ino? Oh yeah, she's kinda hot, and Sakura and her... But it's either Ino or Sasuke; Sasuke won't share with her."

_/He can't bear your kits either./_

Naruto didn't care much for starting the morning by an argument with a voice in his head; besides, he already knew that Kyuubi viewed males as nothing more than toys. Fun toys, granted. He really shouldn't alienate Kyuubi at the moment; the demon was surprisingly sociable today, and there was no reason to waste the rare non-murderous moment.

"Ino would screech our ears out."

_/Pink slut already does./_

"Not half as much as Ino would; 'sides she and Sakura would bicker and fight all the time."

Contempt. _/Fuck them until they're too tired to stand./_

Naruto started laughing; he rather liked that suggestion. Purely rhetorically, of course.

Yeah, this would be a good day. Sakura's dad liked him, Sasuke had let Naruto and Sakura help him, and they were gonna fix Sakura's chakra problem. And Kyuubi was, as always, an asshole, but if Naruto laughed at it instead of getting offended and letting it weird him out, then it couldn't really bother him.

He rolled out of the bed with an easy grace -- the fox was still close, almost as if Kyuubi was looking over his shoulder -- and tripped on Sasuke's abandoned shoes. Gack! He caught himself on the door, wincing at the noise and his smarting palm. Should have known it was a fluke.

"What did you break?" Sasuke yelled from the bathroom.

"I didn't break anything! I just--" left a sooty imprint on his door. Damn it! He'd washed his hands, hadn't he? Yes, he had, at the station, and his face too... But not the rest of him. Of course, now that he was thinking about it, it started to itch.

The water cut off. "You just?" Sasuke repeated, suspicious. Naruto wondered where the soft-spoken, almost docile Sasuke from the night before had gone. Oh well, this one was more normal at least. A desperate Sasuke was a dangerously unpredictable Sasuke; Naruto was glad.

He was tired of yelling through a closed door, though. So he threw it open and stepped inside. "It was open!" Naruto chirped, and dodged hurriedly. The soap bounced off the wall over his head and left a wet, soapy trail in his hair on the way down.

Sasuke was glaring at him through the glass partition of the shower stall, his bare arm still hanging out through the door. "_No, _it was _not_."

"Oh well, it is now -- oh hey, you're naked."

Sasuke threw him a nasty glare, and slammed the sliding panel closed. "No shit, genius."

He was very naked. And wet. And his hair was sticking to his face. Damn that towel rack for blocking the rest of the view.

Though when Sasuke turned away to turn the water back on, it gave Naruto a nice view of his shoulder. And there was the warded curse seal on his neck; small, and part of the landscape by now, but surprisingly hard to ignore. Naruto dismissed the dark impulse to bite down on it, to scar over the mark of ownership with his own.

"So did you just barge in to peep on me, or did you actually have a goal in mind?"

"Maybe peeping was my goal," Naruto retorted, craning his neck to keep glancing back at Sasuke as he washed his hands at the sink.

"Don't make me stuff that soap up your ass, Naruto."

"Oh, bad idea. I hear it makes for terrible lube." He grinned innocently and pulled off his shirt, looking around for a washcloth. There was soot at the base of his neck, and more soot over his chest and under his armpits.

"I thought you were too good to bottom -- what are you doing?"

"Washing up."

"You can't wait your turn?" Sasuke groused, and finished rinsing himself off.

"But it itches NOW!" Naruto protested, rubbing more vigorously.

"Goddamnit -- here! I'm done. Now take a shower instead of dripping dirty water all over the floor."

Sasuke stomped out of the stall, his back stiff, and snatched a towel to dry himself off. He was saying something, about next times and kicking Naruto out and locking the door. Naruto wasn't all too sure of the details, actually. The towel was old and scratchy, and Sasuke's vigorous rubbing left his skin looking flushed. On Sakura, he would have called that shade just-got-molested...

... Hohoho.

"What are you -- let goMMPH!"

Sasuke growled into Naruto's mouth; Naruto laughed in response, and slipped his tongue between Sasuke's lips as deeply as he could go.

"What the fuck--" Sasuke sputtered angrily as he broke the kiss.

"Good morning, bastard!"

Naruto kissed him again, using his weight to back him against the half-open door. Sasuke started shoving him back, but then he slipped on the trail the wet soap had left on the tiles and bumped hard against the door, slamming it closed. Naruto didn't lose any time taking advantage of the opportunity.

Towel dumped on the floor, check. Chest to bare chest, check. Lower body -- damn it, Naruto was still wearing pants. It was kinda nice to know that Sasuke's lower body was bare, though. Lips -- oww, bastard bit hard. Hands...

...Well. Sasuke had to be distracted from biting his lips off, right?

"Nngh!"

... And now Sasuke was kissing back properly. Awesome how a good double hold on his butt changed things -- oh yeah...

"Moron... Gonna get me dirty again..."

"You can shower with me," Naruto proposed, mouthing his neck.

Sasuke shoved him off without warning. Naruto flailed; the same soapy puddle that had ambushed Sasuke had just turned on him. He somehow managed to grab the sink and the edge of the shower stall. "Hey!"

"That's enough 'good morning' for today," Sasuke growled, picked up his towel, and stomped out of the bathroom.

... Well, watching him walk off was nice, too. Naruto wasn't sure what he'd done, though. Oh well, this was still a good way to start the day. He kicked off his pants and stepped into the shower, whistling.

Sasuke's bedroom door was firmly closed when Naruto left the shower, but it didn't matter much, since Sasuke himself was in the kitchen. Still whistling, Naruto strutted his way to the couch and his personal stuff, his back to the counter.

He had been expecting an attack for 'forgetting his towel', and dodged the flying spatula easily, but the second of delay between his appearance and the attack made him grin anyway.

"That was sloppy, Sa-su-ke! Distracted?"

"... If in five seconds you're still naked, I'll throw you out of the window."

Naruto bent over the arm of the couch to pick up a shirt and briefs. "Aw, and you'd let people in the street get an eyeful? Some boyfriend you are! What if I get pawed at by old ladies?"

It was still weird to call Sasuke his boyfriend; they were best friends and teammates first. But it made Sasuke go all gruff to hide his embarrassment, so hey. Whatever worked.

"They're welcome to keep you. Hurry up, we're going to be late."

Naruto snickered, and jumped into his pants before joining Sasuke, and leaning over the counter to look in the kitchen. Sometimes, he wondered if it was truly alright for him to cling to Sakura-chan and Sasuke, physically at least; but he already knew that Sasuke wanted his body bad. He wondered if Sakura found him hot, too, or if she only loved him like a brother.

Well, not the incestuous kind. Or something.

"Hey, Sasuke?"

His teammate was by the fridge, frowning at the contents of a pot, and only grunted an acknowledgement.

"Would you have sex with me? I mean, just me, no Sakura."

Sasuke's back stiffened briefly, and he gave him a long, 'where the hell did that come from' look. Naruto grinned, waiting.

"...Maybe. If I was in the mood."

"Hah! You're such a prude." He dodged the ladle, guffawing. "What would it take to get you in the mood?"

"Keep bothering me and you'll see." Sasuke grunted at him.

"...Arguments turn you on? Ahaha! Why am I not surprised?"

Sasuke flung open a cupboard, slammed an instant ramen cup under Naruto's nose, and pushed the kettle at him. "Shut up, already."

Naruto grinned as he poured the hot water on his noodles, and pretended to forget about the conversation; right now the smell of his favorite food was a lot more interesting.

He watched with interest as Sasuke rolled and shaped onigiri from his rice. For all that Sasuke could cook simple stuff reasonably well, he rarely did it where anyone could see him.

"Is that a triangle or a square?" Naruto inquired as he finished his noodles. It was hard to mess up onigiri -- they were only plain rice with salt, wrapped in seaweed, and Sasuke wasn't bothering with several kinds of fillings -- but as for shaping them, he was a little sloppy.

Sasuke frowned and ignored him, apparently offended; Naruto decided to solve the matter by stretching out over the counter and stealing the faulty rice ball.

The ladle hit him soundly over the head, and he almost choked on his onigiri.

"When did I say any of these are for you?"

"Ow! Selfish." Glowering, Naruto swallowed hurriedly, and reached for a second one, glaring at Sasuke defiantly.

... Bastard grabbed the table and dragged it out of reach.

"Hey, that's cheating!"

Naruto was ignored again, as Sasuke finished rolling them and stuffing a few in a box to take along.

"... Would you have sex with only Sakura?"

Naruto snickered as one of the rice balls went "splurt" between Sasuke's clenched fingers, and grinned innocently when Sasuke whirled around to give him a death glare.

"What's with all the questions?"

"What? I want to know. 'Cause you see, I know you watch my ass, but I don't see you watch Sakura's all that often, so..."

... Oops. What had he just said now? Sasuke looked angry for real, not simply annoyed.

"So. What. You think I'm gay?"

Naruto shrugged, grimacing. "Not entirely, I mean you didn't seem to have a huge problem getting it up for her that night, but maybe you like boys more than girls. It's not a problem for me, I just wanna know if you think you need me there when you're with her."

"...In other words," Sasuke replied softly, "Do I need a cock up my ass to do her?"

Oh, damnit. "I'm just asking! And you've never looked at most girls twice, so sue me for wondering if maybe you don't find any of them sexy."

Sasuke took a deep breath and released it slowly. "It isn't women in general I don't find sexy. It's the vapid twits who shower in perfume, paint their face so much I wouldn't recognize them without it, and think that shoving my face in their cleavage will make me lose my head."

Naruto scratched his head. How could he not appreciate pretty, curvy girls, and soft, inviting smiles, and cute giggles and squeals, and breasts! How could he not like breasts -- um. Yeah. "...So... you don't like girly girls."

Naruto huffed; Sakura had some pretty feminine sides, and while she had sacrificed a lot of them to become a better ninja, she still wasn't naturally inclined to be... un-girly. Naruto liked her like that.

"You'd want Sakura more if she tried to look pretty less often and to kick ass more, is that it?"

Sasuke looked away briefly, and Naruto sighed.

"I'm not going to ask her to wear potato sacks and shave her head."

"Well, you better not!" Naruto retorted with a pout. "...Are you sure you're not gay? I mean, if you don't even like to see her boobs--"

"Did I say that? I like them just fine, it's just --" Sasuke clamped his jaws shut, turned away stiffly and washed the smashed rice off his hand.

Naruto cackled. "Just what?"

"Not everyone's a raging pervert who gets off on ogling people in the street."

"So you don't watch?"

"It's called discretion, maybe you've heard of it."

Naruto crowed in triumph. "So you DO watch!"

Sasuke gave him a disgusted look and stuffed his lunchbox in his pack. "This is the stupidest conversation I've ever had with you."

"No way, the stupidest one was about Kakashi-sensei's mask and how he eats through it."

Sasuke shouldered him away from the counter and stomped toward the door. Laughing, Naruto followed, jumping on one foot then the other one as he put on his sandals. He grabbed his own bag on the way and stepped out, waiting by the balustrade while Sasuke locked the door. There were a few white, puffy clouds in the sky, and a light breeze made the leaves of the tree in the courtyard dance; the day promised to be beautiful. A good thing; their mission of the day was going to have them jogging to the next town over to deliver messages for various businesses.

He waved jovially at the Chuunin who was spying on them from the next roof, and considered with some amusement that Tsunade must have found some great leverage in her permanent battle with her counselors; now the days he was under watch were a lot rarer than the days without. Anyway, they left him alone when he was with Kakashi-sensei or some other responsible person, and the annoyance was so minor that he didn't feel like bothering to be annoyed. He suspected that the person who kept him under watch did so as much to nag Tsunade with stuff that she had to pretend to ignore, as because they were really worried he'd lose it and start rampaging. He wasn't going to let them score a point against the old hag off him.

... Though if he wanted to molest Sasuke or Sakura one of these days, he'd better remember to do so with the blinds closed; neither of his teammates was much into exhibitionism, as far as he knew. ... Oh hey, maybe he should ask them, later.

"What's so funny?"

Naruto realized that he was grinning, and grinned a little wider. "It's a nice day." Yep; nice weather, a mission that would get them back on the road, Sasuke out of his funk, and a solution to Sakura's health problems in sight. A very nice day.

Sasuke huffed and started down the stairs. Naruto followed, throwing an arm around his shoulders.

"Are you still annoyed about the boobs conversation?"

"Only if you start it again."

"Okay, okay. So you're of the 'more than a handful is a waste' school of thought, and I'm with the 'bigger is better' crowd. At least we can agree on what makes a nice ass, right?"

Sasuke shrugged out of Naruto's hold and glowered. "What's with you and girls today? Have you forgotten to jerk off for the last month or what?"

"We could talk about boys, but I haven't thought as much about it."

Sasuke actually growled. "Yes, I got it, you're straight as a ruler, I'm just a fluke -- or maybe just girly enough for you."

Naruto blinked, startled. "What? No! I just like girls better in general, but it isn't as if you're the only boy I've ever -- guh. Of course you're a boy, I mean you're pretty, but that's just your face and you're gonna kill me, aren't you."

Now Sasuke looked put-upon, and tired. Very tired. "... I'm not _pretty_."

"Uh -- don't worry," he replied as they reached the end of the stairs, "Sakura is still prettier."

Sasuke threw him an unfriendly look, but these came standard and Naruto ignored it. So long as he kept replying, they were still bantering.

"Yes," Sasuke growled out through gritted teeth, "and Sakura also has breasts -- should I grow some to please you, Naruto-sama?"

"Well, you'd look weird with huge knockers, but maybe GACK! I was kidding -- oww, oww!"

Naruto squirmed on the ground, trying to get out of the hold, but Sasuke only put more weight on the foot in the middle of his back and twisted his arm a little farther back.

"Come on, Sasuke, just because I think you'd look nice with tits...!"

"...Ah... Good morning?"

Naruto craned his neck, and grinned up at Sakura. She was watching them, and from there he couldn't tell if she looked more jaded or annoyed, or something else. "Hiya, Sakura-chan!"

"Hello, Naruto... Sasuke-kun."

She gave Sasuke a quick worried look, then smiled. "I didn't think you'd leave so early..."

Huh. Sasuke was looking away from her; it probably bothered him that she still visibly worried about yesterday. Naruto could understand where she was coming from, though; last she'd seen the bastard, he hadn't been in such a good state. Naruto wasn't sure telling her about their plan in the middle of the street was a good idea -- he wasn't even sure they should tell her at all just yet. What if it didn't work? "Yeah, Sasuke rushed me out. I think he was scared for his onigiri -- oh hey, that reminds me, I gotta buy sandwiches for the road."

"Onigiri?" she repeated in surprise, glancing at Sasuke, and then at Naruto. Naruto grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

"Yep! They're not so bad, even if he always makes them with the same kind of fish. But he's not gonna sell them anytime soon," he added, smirking at Sasuke over his shoulder. "They're too ugly."

Sasuke snorted as he followed them. "They're not ugly. They're also not for you, idiot."

Sakura looked vaguely disappointed. "Oh."

"You're so selfish!" Naruto accused, pointing a finger at him.

Sasuke shrugged and looked away briefly. "Never said Sakura couldn't have any."

"What, just me?"

Sasuke smirked at him. "Yes."

Naruto kept up the banter with Sasuke with the ease of a long habit, glad to see that Sakura was relaxing a little at their ritual exchange of insults. _See? He's fine._

Sakura seemed a bit too subdued for his tastes, but then she'd probably spent the rest of the night fretting -- also, she faintly smelled like she'd gotten sick not too long ago; it was weak enough that he could have missed it, but she was still a bit too pale, too. He tried not to worry too much; Sasuke would find a way to make his idea work, and then she'd be safe.

In the meantime, Naruto reminded himself that not everyone could eat right after throwing up, and hid the food he'd just bought deep into his bag; she was turning green around the gills.

oOoOoOo

By the time night fell over the town, Naruto had delivered all his messages. Of course, it also meant that he came back last to the hotel; but he didn't care, because tomorrow he would get to do whatever he wanted while the rest of his team finished up their deliveries. It had been a good idea to take the restaurants and night clubs; they gave him longer hours to work with.

Kakashi was chatting quietly with Sakura over a cup of tea in the dining room. Naruto joined them in their secluded corner, slumping heavily on the closest chair.

"Hey. I'm back." He stretched his legs under the table and winced a little as his feet reminded him that they hated his guts. "Bastard not back yet? I thought I was the last..."

Sakura looked away; Naruto blinked.

"He's upstairs," Kakashi replied instead. "We're staying in a six-bed dormitory. So far we're not sharing with anyone, though."

Naruto pouted. "What, no separate rooms? Stingy..."

Kakashi smiled at him with unnerving cheerfulness. "Are you going to do anything that needs a private bedroom as opposed to a simple bed, Naruto?"

"Well--"

Sakura kicked him under the table.

"Ow! Uh. No, guess not." Naruto ruffled his hair, grinning uncomfortably. "What were you talking about?"

Sakura blushed a little, looking away, and Naruto blinked at her. Okay, there was something weird going on there. What would she talk about with Kakashi-sensei that she wouldn't want him to know?

"Nothing important," Kakashi replied smoothly. Naruto scowled, and opened his mouth to protest, but Kakashi beat him to it. "You've been running hard, I see. Go take a shower."

"Hey, what's that mean? I stink?"

Sakura grimaced. "Well, you don't smell of roses. In fact, you smell of -- tobacco?"

"And pot," Kakashi added helpfully, opening his book as if he wasn't concerned.

"Ah, yeah, my last stop was a strip joint."

Sakura leveled a flat glare at him that made him quake in his shoes. "_Really_."

Naruto gaped at her for a few seconds; caught off-guard by the unexpected possessiveness, he almost forgot he was in trouble. "I didn't watch! Promise. They were all old and saggy anyway -- uh. Gonna take that shower now."

Sakura still looked about to bash his head in; it made him feel like bouncing. "Yes, you do that."

Naruto couldn't resist; really, he couldn't. He paused with his hand on the back of his chair, ready to shove it between them to protect himself, and asked with a wide grin, "Wanna wash my back?"

Of course, taking off running didn't help the state of his feet, but hey! It was better than a fist to the head.

Still grinning, he found the right room somehow, and peeked in; three rows of bunk beds, one of them right in front of the window. They weren't going to use that one. Sasuke had taken over the top bed on the left and was sitting cross-legged in the corner, his back to the wall. He glared suspiciously at Naruto over the scroll he was reading, and then, recognizing him, immediately stopped paying attention.

"Yeah, good evening to you too, you jerk," Naruto groused as he dropped his bag on the bed under Sasuke's, and fished out a change of underwear and his bathing stuff. When he exited the room, Sasuke hadn't even moved at all. Naruto shrugged it off; he had more pressing concerns for now.

The shower wasn't as hot as he would have liked, but still warm enough to make him feel better -- though he was really getting tired of being on his feet. The towel wrapped around his shoulders, he trudged back to the room to put away his stuff, and paused between the bunk beds as he tried to decide; nap, or Sakura-chan and Kakashi? It was late, and there was a chance he wouldn't wake up until tomorrow...

"Put away that towel," Sasuke ordered from his perch, startling him.

"Huh?"

"The towel. Put it away. And stand on the ladder."

Naruto stared up at his teammate, confused. "What?"

"Towel. Ladder. Now."

... O-kay. Whatever. He spread the towel over the windowsill and climbed the bars to Sasuke's bed, still confused.

"Stop."

Naruto stopped, the mattress pressing against the front of his thighs. Sasuke was staring at his bellybutton, scowling heavily. "Uh, Sasuke?"

"The seal. Make it come out."

...Oh. "You're doing research?" he asked, as he joined his hands to concentrate his chakra. The scroll across Sasuke's lap was covered in scribbles; he tried to read them, but they were upside-down and Sasuke's writing was tiny. Probably in code, too.

"Just the groundwork."

Naruto could feel Kyuubi stirring, deep below the surface, and it was difficult not to open up a way for the demon along with his chakra; so when Sasuke reached for Naruto's boxers, he was a bit surprised. "Gyah!" He caught himself on the safety rail, and gaped at the other boy. Sasuke was looking annoyed.

"I can't see the bottom half, stupid."

"Well, you should have asked me instead of diving for my underwear like that!" Naruto grumbled. He balanced himself and tugged his briefs as far down his hips as they could go without falling off or baring more of his body than Sasuke wanted to see at the moment.

"Make it come out again, and this time, don't move," Sasuke ordered absently as he started copying the seal on his scroll.

"Hurry up, my feet hurt," Naruto whined. The ladder was digging into them uncomfortably. He wanted to nap... Or sit down, at least. But then Sasuke would bitch that the seal was all bunched up.

"You're destroying my ego, you know," he muttered, pretty sure that Sasuke wasn't even listening. "You could at least leer a little."

Sasuke leaned forward and reached out, fingertips brushing against the bottom of the spiral. Naruto's breath hitched in surprise; Sasuke was looking up at him, a faintly mocking air in his eyes.

"If you stand still now, maybe I'll eventually be convinced to... reward you."

... Oh hell, now in a couple of minutes he would bitch because the tent in Naruto's pants was blocking the view.

"Naruto? Why did you flare your..." Sakura's voice trailed off behind him. "... chakra."

Startled, Naruto lost his balance and jumped off the ladder. Sakura was standing by the door, staring at the both of them.

"Ah, Sakura-chan," he started, and then paused; she was looking at him like he had been stomping on kittens.

"I see," she said calmly. Naruto didn't see; what was going on there?

"... Sakura?"

She clenched her fists, took in a deep breath. "Last call for dinner, Kakashi-sensei says to come down now or sleep on an empty stomach."

"Wait," he called hurriedly, alarmed by her tone, and looked around for his pants. "Wait, I'm coming with you -- Sakura-chan!"

One foot in his pants, he stared at the closed door, then looked up at Sasuke, taken aback. The other boy was still leaning on his hands on the bed, face empty of expression.

"Sasuke?"

Frowning suddenly, Sasuke sat back and began rolling his scroll with quick, curt movements.

"Sasuke, what's going on?"

"She thought I was about to go down on you," Sasuke replied tersely, and jumped over the railing, the scroll in hand.

"Oh!" Man, he wished. Well, from the door, maybe it did look that way... "But why'd she leave? I mean if it was me catching you two..." ...Oh.

He fell silent, dismayed. Sasuke didn't answer, only shaking his head briefly before stalking toward the door. Naruto scurried after him, grabbing a shirt as he passed.

She wasn't in the dining room; Kakashi was still at the same table, though he was leaning forward on his elbows. He wasn't reading; Naruto took that as a bad sign.

"What's this I hear about you two being busy?" he asked, smiling genially.

Naruto spluttered; Sasuke cut him off with a quick gesture and glared at their teacher. "We weren't. Where is she?"

They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds while Naruto danced with impatience; and then Kakashi nodded slowly. "Bathroom. Don't cause a commotion."

Sasuke nodded sharply and stalked off. Naruto grimaced at Kakashi -- he felt like he should say something, he just didn't know what. His teacher just sighed, and waved him off.

The ground-floor girl's bathroom was empty at this hour, but Naruto did get a scandalized look from a middle-aged woman walking by when he slipped inside. Sasuke was standing by the one closed stall, looking quite disgruntled.

"Sakura, get out of there."

There was no reply; for a moment, Naruto thought that they'd gotten the wrong person.

"... You shouldn't be in here," she finally replied.

"As if I care. Come out, Sakura."

There was another moment of silence; Naruto gave Sasuke a pleading look and stepped forward to try it, but the other boy stopped him with a curt gesture without even looking at him.

"No," she finally replied.

Sasuke sighed, closed his eyes briefly, and then jumped to catch the top of the stall and pulled himself up. He dropped out of view as Sakura gasped in shock.

"H-hey! What if I'd been--"

Naruto drew closer, listening to the rustle of clothes as they moved around. The stall was barely wide enough for one, let alone two; but what stopped him from joining them was that Sasuke hadn't seemed to expect or want his help.

There was more silence; from the shadows under the stall, Naruto assumed that they were standing face to face. Or Sasuke was standing. Or... Gah.

"We weren't, Sakura."

Sasuke's voice was quiet, almost soft. Naruto relaxed a little; he'd been afraid the bastard would sound annoyed.

There was even more silence. Damn it. He went to close the bathroom's door quietly, and then sneaked back to the stall. He didn't know what was happening, but he was pretty sure popping up over the wall would blow up the moment like a wad of explosive tags.

Sakura sniffled quietly. The next second, Naruto was on his front on the floor. He could only see up to their knees without being seen himself; it was enough to understand that Sakura was leaning against Sasuke's chest. Hugging? Aw. Now he was torn between wanting to see and tiptoeing away.

"...Sorry, I'm sorry, I just--"

Sasuke didn't say anything, but he leaned against the door; Naruto saw her step forward hesitantly to stand between his legs.

Well, he thought to himself as he rolled away to sit up. Well. Maybe they'd be fine without him. Besides, the stall was really too narrow for the three of them.

"What were you doing then?" she asked quietly. It sounded a bit muffled; she probably had her face pressed against Sasuke's shoulder.

Sasuke sighed. "Do you trust me?"

Naruto blinked, and opened his mouth to protest. He wasn't going to tell her? Not mentioning it just yet was one thing, but deliberately refusing to say anything...

Sakura sounded a little hurt as she replied, "You know I do."

"Then please, wait a little longer." Sasuke's voice was so soft, so quiet, Naruto had to strain to hear him.

More silence; Naruto imagined that she was probably giving Sasuke a hurt look.

"...Fine. But you'll tell me eventually? Because if it wasn't... that, and yet it was still _something_..."

Sasuke shushed her. "Later, Sakura."

There was more silence; Naruto sat up against the wall, uncomfortable. Perhaps he ought to go back to Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke knew he was there, but Sakura probably didn't, and the idea of spying on them didn't sit well with him.

"I'm tired of living at Ino's. Yesterday -- I should have come back with you." She sniffled; the next words came out muffled again. "I feel out of the loop and I miss you two -- and you're cooking and chatting and I'm not there. I'm jealous..."

"I don't cook all that well or all that often, and Naruto can only make ramen," Sasuke replied, sounding embarrassed. "And basically it's just a lot of arguments about socks and boxers and music too loud and who has dibs on the bathroom."

"But it's the way you two relate. And I miss that. I mean, Ino is great, and it's been fun -- like a long sleepover... but..."

"... Do you want to move in with us? It's going to be cramped, but we'll figure something out."

"I don't know if it's a very practical idea, I mean -- I mean..." She sounded like she was trying not to cry. Naruto bit his lip, hard. "...Yes. Yes, I really want to."

Silence -- a kiss, soft and short.

"Alright."

Naruto snuck out of the bathroom. He'd intruded enough for tonight.

oOoOoOo

"They're pretty good, aren't they?"

Sakura blinked at Naruto, still chewing on her onigiri, and nodded vigorously. On her other side, Sasuke made a face.

"Gimme a bit, pretty-please Sakura-chaan?"

"You have sandwiches," Sasuke groused.

Naruto huffed at him, but the bastard was looking away. "So? I can share my sandwiches, too. Even if they're a bit old now," he muttered sulkily.

Sakura giggled softly and held out the rice ball in front of him. Naruto grinned widely at her and bit down.

"Mmh. Good good. But why d'you always make them with fish, Sasuke?"

"Because I like fish, and I'm not cooking for you," Sasuke grunted back.

Naruto wanted to take Sakura's hand; he hadn't had any occasion to be close to her since yesterday, what with the host politely informing them that the dining hall would close in fifteen minutes, Kakashi-sensei's presence in the bedroom, and then a morning spent delivering the rest of the missives. But the second they'd left the town to go back to Konoha, she had started walking beside Sasuke; and Sasuke hadn't tried to widen the gap between them when it ended up much more narrow than usual. Sometimes their arms or shoulders bumped, and Naruto wondered, vaguely grumpy, why they didn't hold hands already. It wasn't as if Kakashi-sensei turned around to check on them all that often.

Sasuke wasn't getting the hint, though; Naruto had followed them for an hour now and the stupid bastard still hadn't made a move on Sakura-chan.

Unless you counted not moving away, which by Sasuke's standards was probably a big one. Naruto wasn't sure if he should be glad or annoyed at Sakura's lack of boldness. She'd always had her strong-willed moments, and sometimes she acted like Tsunade was starting to rub off on her a bit, but around Sasuke she always went back to -- argh.

Oh well! He was tired of walking behind them anyway. Sasuke's loss. And she had fed him, and she hadn't fed Sasuke. So there. Though the mental picture of anyone hand-feeding Sasuke... Hahaha.

"What's so funny, dead-last?"

"Your hair looks like a bird's ass." And now, with the hair and the hand-feeding, Naruto was wondering what he'd look like as a duckling. So, of course, he just had to quack at him. Everything was better with sound effects.

Sakura groaned, and Sasuke sneered at him. "How old are you again?"

"Same as you," Naruto retorted, and stuck his tongue out.

Bickering was good; it was such an old habit that he didn't have to think at all. So he bickered with Sasuke, and with Sakura when she finally joined in. It was fun and comfortable, and he could stuff the silly romantic tension aside and forget it.

"I can't move in with you just yet."

Okay, yes, his fun was pretty much killed dead now. Naruto stared at Sakura, caught off-guard and dismayed. Now he could forget the fun bickering too. Sasuke didn't look all that pleased by the unexpected news either.

"You changed your mind? Why?" Sasuke asked, scowling.

She sighed, gave him a brave little smile, and then glanced at Naruto too, before shrugging and staring ahead. "I really want to, but... The apartment is not magically going to get any bigger."

"But I thought you'd be moving in today, or tomorrow," Naruto retorted, waving his arms in protest. He was aware that he was whining, but damn it, he didn't care! "I miss you, too -- uh." Oh, wait. Officially, he didn't know about that, right? Unless she had heard him, but -- but.

She caught his hand, and squeezed it gently. "Thank you, Naruto."

...Oh. He only remembered to squeeze back when she started to let go, and blushed a little as he caught the embarrassed, pleased look on her face. She was happy he missed her! That made life good enough to forget about her announcement. Well, almost.

"We'll look for a temporary apartment when we get there," Sakura continued, giving them questioning looks.

"Alright!" Naruto grinned back.

"If you don't mind moving so soon, Sasuke-kun..."

Sasuke was scowling at the ground, and only shrugged. "I don't care. So long as it has enough space for three futons."

"And it's got a room for you to lock yourself in," Naruto added, rolling his eyes. Sasuke would be totally impossible to live with if he had nowhere to bolt to.

Sasuke glared at him. "I can deal without that if it isn't for the long run."

"Yeah, but we still don't know what to do 'bout getting a real home, so who knows how long it's gonna last?"

"It's stupid to waste money on a large apartment if it's not good enough to raise a child in it," Sasuke countered, scowling even more.

Naruto rolled his eyes again. "You're obsessed with money. Sure, what we've got now is gonna run out, but that's why people work; to make _more_."

"And you're totally irresponsible!"

A polite cough interrupted them. Sakura and Naruto reddened, as Sasuke cringed; they had forgotten that Kakashi was walking ahead. They hadn't started loud, but Kakashi's senses were uncanny as it was, and there was no way he had missed the conversation.

"Ah, sorry, sensei," Sakura apologized with a wince. Naruto scratched his neck, embarrassed, and waited for the 'we are on a mission, put your relationship on hold, already' reminder.

Instead, Kakashi shrugged, glanced at them over his shoulder, and commented casually, "Doesn't the Uchiha compound have many empty houses?"

...Oh, hey.

Sakura and Naruto looked at each other, then at Sasuke. He was scowling at the ground; Naruto opened his mouth to ask what he was brooding about now, though he did have something of a guess.

"And I have been lookout for the last hour," Kakashi announced cheerily, and slowed down, forcing them to spread out. "Sasuke! Your turn. Naruto, you take the rear. Sakura, do the fifth chakra control exercise, now."

Naruto would have protested more, but seeing how fast and how quietly Sasuke sped up to take point, he decided to stay silent. Damn Sasuke. For his birthday, Naruto would get him a t-shirt that read 'Warning: Explosive-Tag Field Ahead'.

It was hard to stay annoyed, though, when he thought about the way Sakura had squeezed his hand quickly before letting go.

Besides, when he was last in the line, he got to ogle their butts.

... Not Kakashi's. Eurgh.

oOoOoOo

"Bah! _'Make yourself useful'_, he says. _'Stop disturbing me'_, he says."

Naruto kicked a rock out of his path and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"Just 'cause I asked what he wanted to do about the stupid house. Bastard."

He fingered the folded slip of paper in his pocket, tempted to crumple it in frustration. But no -- Sasuke's handwriting was tiny enough; if he damaged the list...

Sasuke had been brooding obsessively over his scrolls and things since they had gotten back from their mission. Sakura-chan was with Tsunade for a check-up, or maybe training with Shizune; he wasn't sure. Kakashi-sensei... not a clue; the man had trained them in the morning, but then he'd given them the rest of the day off and disappeared. And Iruka-sensei was teaching his classes, of course.

So now Naruto had nothing better to do than play errand-boy. Oh well; if Sasuke needed those scrolls for their plan, Naruto would get them. Still... "Stupid cranky bastard."

"Naruto. It's been a while."

Naruto couldn't help but yelp and jump in surprise. Neji was emerging from another street, looking just as cool and composed as always. Since there was no way to pretend he hadn't been startled, Naruto made a show of clenching his hand over his heart. "Oi! You like creeping up on people, I see." How strange; speak of the cranky bastard and a cranky bastard appeared. The wrong one, granted, and not much of a bastard anymore at that, but still, it was pretty funny. He grinned as Neji arched an eyebrow at him. "Long time no see. Where are you going?"

Right now, Neji wasn't going anywhere; he was just watching him. Naruto scratched his neck, and tried to dismiss the unsettling impression that he was staring right through his brain.

"... Administrative building," the Hyuuga finally answered.

"Oh, cool, I'm going that way too." Naruto started walking, and Neji fell into step with him. "You picking up a new mission?"

"No. My latest report needs clarification." Neji looked quite disgruntled. Naruto snickered.

"What, YOU, writing confusing reports? No way."

Neji's scowl grew more pronounced. "It was too succinct, apparently."

"Suc-what?"

"Terse?" Neji retorted, arching an eyebrow at him.

Naruto chuckled and crossed his arms behind his head. "Oh, stop being a big-worded jerk. You can just say you didn't pad it enough."

"I said--"

"--exactly what needed to be said, no more, no less," Naruto finished for him. "Yeah, yeah. You know, that's exactly what they tell me to write down. Maybe I should do your reports and you should do mine."

He was expecting a 'and maybe not' and a mildly haughty look, perhaps with a smirk if Neji was in a good mood. Instead, he got silence, and -- when glancing at Neji in askance -- a long, searching, narrow-eyed look.

"... What?"

"You seem to be feeling much better," Neji finally replied noncommittally.

Naruto blinked at him. "Better? What do you mean? I'm fine -- oh." Oh. Last time Neji had seen him was during the retrieval mission, almost two months ago. As in, when they'd been racing back to Konoha and its hospital, after he had gone half-Kyuubi and forced Neji to check on Sasuke's internal trauma.

"...Oh, shit. I'm sorry. I forgot -- I mean, so much stuff happened and I--"

"Naruto--"

"--No, no, listen, I should have found you to apologize, but then life got crazy for a little while, and then when it calmed down I totally forgot." He gave Neji a dismayed look.

The Hyuuga's face was about as expressive as a blank wall. "Huh. I'll believe you on that life going crazy bit."

Naruto wilted, shoulders slumping, and wished he could say more; but they were in the middle of the street. "I really am sorry, you know. I was just so --"

"He was dying. I understand."

Naruto flinched a little, at the reminder, and at his detached tone. Neji was one of those people who could say they understood and mean it, and yet make it perfectly clear that understanding and forgiveness were really not synonymous at all.

"Who already knows?" Neji asked.

"Uhh. Mostly adults -- the teachers -- and Sakura-chan and Sasuke, now. And Kiba and Shika. I don't know if they told their teams. Everyone our age and under..." he shrugged.

Neji arched an eyebrow at him, aristocratic as always. "... You didn't tell your team?"

Naruto wilted. "No. I should have, but..."

"But?"

Naruto clenched his fists in his pockets and kicked at a rock. "Thinking that they might be afraid or hate me -- it scared the shit out of me." And now Neji...

"I see." They were silent for a few more steps, and then Neji turned toward him and smirked, just a little. "Well, that explains a lot of things, anyway. Like how you were able to beat me at all."

"Oh hey, what's that mean? That I had an unfair advantage?"

"Perhaps."

"Oh, and you being born a Hyuuga isn't unfair at all for the poor bastards you face. 'Sides, it isn't so easy to control, you know!"

Neji's faint smirk disappeared, and he nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I guess I can imagine that. How... difficult is it, exactly?"

Naruto blinked, startled. Under the 'couldn't care less' attitude, he'd heard -- "Hee! Are you worried?"

He grinned; Neji managed somehow to give off the impression that he was rolling his eyes without moving them at all. "Vaguely concerned, maybe."

Naruto's grin softened, even though he knew that it wasn't what Neji meant. "Thanks for the trust, then."

Neji frowned a little, but didn't correct him.

"Most of the time there's no problem at all. Just pops up sometimes when I'm real flaming pissed. Got a few weird moments because of instincts and all, but old hag Tsunade promised to make Kiba's family teach me. So I'm fine. It was just a freak accident; it won't happen again."

Neji stared directly at him. "You are sure of that?"

Naruto hesitated. He was, of course, but everyone told him he was too optimistic, and nothing said the old fox didn't have more tricks up his sleeve. "Reasonably so."

They walked in silence once again, Naruto desperately trying not to fret.

"I can live with that," Neji finally replied with a little smirk.

"Oh, good."

They passed a corner, and had to navigate past a gaggle of people. Apparently, stuff was on sale; Naruto glanced at it, but found nothing all that interesting.

"You wouldn't have found me anyway."

Naruto blinked at Neji quizzically.

"After things settled down," the Hyuuga explained. "My team and I were sent on a mission for several weeks, and then as soon as we came back, we left again."

"Oh, okay. Um, did you tell Lee and Tenten?"

Neji speared him with an affronted glare. "It was _classified_."

"All right, all right. I guess... I should tell them. How'd you think they'll react?"

Neji shook his head. "You don't have to. You aren't close to Tenten, as far as I know, and Lee," he added with a weary sigh, "would probably take to proclaiming from the rooftops that he's going to nobly seek justice for you."

Naruto chuckled. "Hah, it wouldn't bother me if he did that. I mean, so long as everyone who matters is alright with it, I really can't be bothered to care about what the rest thinks. Though it means I gotta tell Hinata," he finished with a wince. "It's not fair; you know, Kiba knows... Uh, how do you think she'd react?"

Neji looked up at the sky, as if searching for an answer up there. "...She will not reject you. She might be shocked for a while. She will be sad. She'll empathize." He shrugged. "It is not in her nature to be cruel or judgmental."

Naruto sighed, and relaxed. "Yeah, you're right. Thanks." They were almost at the Administrative building; Naruto paused, grinning at him. "Okay, I gotta go this way."

"The library?" Neji replied, arching his eyebrow again, in that utterly aristocratic-and-sarcastic way that even Sasuke couldn't manage.

"Hey, don't look as if you think I can't read!"

Neji kept staring at him, his damn eyebrow still up. Naruto couldn't do that -- arch just the one and not both. Maybe it was a skill reserved to sarcastic brats.

"... Okay, it's not for me." A pause. "Don't smirk at me."

Neji's expression was smooth and politely empty once again. "I wouldn't dare."

"What's that you say? You want another beating?"

Ahaha, how easy it was to rile him. Now he looked all offended and bristly.

"You wouldn't beat me twice."

"Oh yeah?" Naruto drawled, grinning impishly.

Neji straightened up, looking down his nose at him. "Yes. But I'll prove it to you another time," he added, turning away to leave.

Naruto hummed under his breath. "Scaaredy-caat..."

"What was that?"

"What? I didn't say anything. Are you hearing voices?"

Neji's eyes narrowed; but it didn't hide the corners of his mouth tilting up. "Go and borrow your books, Naruto. And make sure that all the letters in the titles match the ones on your list. I'm sure the librarian will be willing to assist you in case the big words get too complicated. I'll find you later."

Laughing, Naruto waved at Neji as he disappeared within the building, and then went to the library.

He was going to check out some basic titles, and then he was going to use his marvelous pranking skills and slip into the restricted sections for the ones that would make too many people raise eyebrows. He didn't want to bother making a formal request, and especially not on Sasuke's behalf; it would already look weird for Naruto to want stuff he wasn't even expected to understand, but for Sasuke to start researching that kind of arcane things... heh.

And if the Hokage was still distracted by Sakura...

It was a good thing the ANBU weren't watching him today. And it was even better that he still remembered how he'd slipped past the Sandaime's security to get that forbidden scroll five years ago.

oOoOoOo

Once he was done with the library, Naruto strolled into the Hokage's tower, casually waving hello to the guards at the bottom of the stairs. They didn't stop him. They never did unless Tsunade had specifically requested not to be disturbed; and even then she had to add "on pain of death" to make them try with any real conviction. He guessed that being known as Tsunade's Official Likeable Annoyance had its perks.

He passed a few people in the corridors, but at this hour, everyone was working. The door to Tsunade's office was closed; he could hear voices in the other room that she used to stock medical stuff and books and scrolls.

Well, damn; that was where he needed to be. He still remembered where she had made him and Sasuke put away stuff during one of their D-rank missions, and the scroll in question was memorable; he'd used its illustrations to gross out Sasuke. Once he was in the file room, he could find the scroll quickly, provided the old hag hadn't arranged everything all over again. But if she was in the file room -- damn it. And he couldn't really come back in the middle of the night when she was gone.

He was still hesitating over the road to take when Sakura's voice rang out. "Yes? You can come in, you know."

With a guilty start, Naruto reached for the half-open door, and grinned at her as he popped his head in. "Hi, Sakura-chan!"

"Oh --"

"Sakura? Who's here?" Tsunade asked, her voice muffled by the closed door to her private file room.

"It's Naruto, Hokage-sama," Sakura called back before turning to smile back at him. She still looked kind of puzzled, though. "What are you doing here?"

... Okay, keep as close to the truth as possible... "Bah, Sasuke sent me to get him stuff because he's too lazy to move his ass, and I decided that he could wait a bit while I said hello."

Sakura wasn't really telling them much about her special training, so he looked curiously at her workspace. She was standing in front of a low table with squiggly markings painted on it; there was a dead, tail-less lizard belly-up right in the middle. There were other critters in jars and aquariums lined up along one of the ends of the table; Naruto stepped closer to peer at them.

"Eww, gross," he commented cheerfully. "Sakura-chan, the mad scientist. So what are you doing, sticking fish fins on its tail stump?"

She rolled her eyes at him, though her attention was back on the lizard, and her hands had started glowing green again. "Shh. If you can't stay quiet--"

"--I'll boot you out," finished Tsunade as she emerged from the file room, startling him into nervous laughter. "I might even boot you out right now if you don't stop distracting her. Sakura?"

Sakura was biting her lip, frowning in concentration. "Still holding it, Hokage-sama."

"Good. Second stage now," Tsunade ordered as she dumped a pile of scrolls on her desk and turned briefly to go close the door of the file room.

Naruto was too busy staring at the scroll he wanted -- right under the new pile of scrolls! Damn it! -- to pay much attention to Sakura's second stage.

Which was why he missed the start of Sakura's sudden lunge, and why the feel of a cool, squirming body zipping up his neck and into his hair made him scream like a little girl.

Then, of course, he lost his balance because he'd been in the middle of an about-face to look at Sakura, and her desperate grab for the suddenly very alive lizard only managed to put him even more off-balance.

"... Ow."

"You're picking that up, Naruto," Tsunade informed him wearily, as he sat up against the foot of the desk and rubbed at his bruised hip. Naruto groaned, glaring at all the stuff he had managed to knock off the desk on his way down -- oh. Oh. Oh, _yeah_.

"Wait -- are you hurt? Let me see," Sakura asked, pushing away from the table on which she had sprawled and circling it.

Hee, she was so sweet, it was just a bruise, but getting her healing hands on his body -- wait, ack, no! She would see what he was doing!

"Nah, nah, it's alright, Sakura-chan, I'm already all better. Really."

He grinned -- a bit nervously -- at her over the edge of the desk, and turned away to pick up the scrolls, his heart speeding up. Tsunade was still watching from the other side with her hands on her hips, disgruntled; but with a little luck -- now where had the green scroll gone?

"Hurry up, you lazy brat."

"I'd be faster if your office wasn't full of other stuff! How am I supposed to know what was already on the floor or not?" he grouched back, crawling around to hunt down the scrolls.

"Well then, if the state of my office offends you so much, I'm sure you won't mind coming back tomorrow to clean it," Tsunade retorted, eyeballing him rather evilly.

Naruto wilted. "That's not fair!"

"Sure it is," Tsunade replied with a smug smile. "You mentioned it first. Now hurry up a bit."

Grumbling under his breath, he started looking around again, stuffing more scrolls in his arm as he went.

There, green scroll! He crawled closer -- guhh, please make them not notice --

"The lizard!" Sakura dove under her table to catch the -- now tail-sporting -- reptile. Naruto thanked the deities watching over him and picked up the scroll, moving to slip it in his jacket.

There was another green scroll hiding behind a pile of paperwork. Same white and gold edges; the rope holding it closed was pale brown instead of white and he couldn't remember which was the right one. Ohfuckdamnit.

"Put them down, you're going to drop them, trying to hold so many at once," Tsunade commented as she swooped down and negligently picked up the second green scroll.

"... Aha, Uzumaki Naruto would never be so --" ... so... ick. Why did his usual automatic boasting have to fail him now, whyyy?

"Clumsy?" Tsunade replied, smirking just a little bit.

Pouting, Naruto got up and went to dump his armful on the Hokage's desk. He could feel the first scroll slip down his vest and settle against his belly. Did it look weird? He couldn't glance down to check -- maybe he could touch? Be discreet -- but he'd been turned away too long. Pasting another grin on his face, he turned to face them, and prayed for the scroll not to show.

"So, when will you be done with Sakura-chan?"

Sakura was busy stuffing the lizard in a glass jar with a grim smile on her lips; she didn't pay him much attention, apart from a quick smile at her name.

"Let me see the lizard first," Tsunade asked, reaching out to take the jar from the girl.

Naruto leaned closer, poking at the glass curiously. "Did you bring it back to life or what? I thought it was dead... Oh hey, it was missing its tail, wasn't it?"

Sakura huffed in a 'You're stupid' way, but she was also grinning, so he just grinned back.

"I was trying to combine holding a forced hibernation with regenerating a missing bit. Of course, with such a small animal, it's easier, and lizard tails naturally regenerate, so it was more of a matter of giving his body a nudge, but I think I've found the trick now. Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade peered at the lizard for a few seconds longer, then nodded. "Indeed. It's almost time for my next appointment, so I'll let you go now." She rolled her eyes. "No doubt Naruto will make himself a nuisance and you won't accomplish anything anyway."

"Hey, I wouldn't!" Naruto protested.

Tsunade wasn't listening to him; she was still talking with Sakura. "Don't forget to practice that trick during your meditation -- three hours tonight. I'll see you tomorrow."

Naruto waved and started toward the door as Sakura bowed to Tsunade. The second he was out of sight, he had a hand up his jacket, and the green scroll safely tucked away in one of his inner pockets with the other scrolls he'd borrowed from the library. When Sakura joined him in the corridor, he was able to smile much more naturally.

"What's that trick about?"

"Oh -- you have to split your chakra and maintain perfect control over two unstable jutsus at the same time; it's complicated."

"You can't put someone to sleep, and then do your second jutsu?"

"No, they're not long action -- I mean," she added as she caught his puzzled blink, "if you stop paying attention and maintaining your hold, the jutsu stops. And it's easy to make a reptile hibernate; they just wake up so easily. But it's going to be much harder to do that with mammals; they're not supposed to have their temperature change so much... I'll have to monitor that, too, once I have the basic trick ingrained..."

He listened to her as she delved into the mysteries of healing techniques he had never heard of. He didn't understand the first thing about any of it, but she sounded so animated, so passionate.

"That sounds great!" he enthused. "Bet not everyone can do it."

Sakura's cheeks pinked a bit, and Naruto snickered when she couldn't hold in a proud, superior grin. He liked seeing her so confident. "Oh, probably not. The control demanded is too precise for lots of medic-nins, not to mention the general population."

"Does it need lots and lots of chakra?"

Sakura's smile dimmed. "Not a lot, no. Maybe about three to four kawarimi for now."

"Oh. But with mammals it will be harder, right?" he asked again; he wasn't sure what he'd done wrong, but he wanted to see her superior grin again.

"Well... Yes, a bit. It also depends on the size of the animal... But my chakra control is getting a lot more precise, so I'll manage."

She didn't look as happy this time, and Naruto didn't understand why it hadn't worked right away. Then it dawned, bit by bit. "I thought you were only training for quantity...?"

Sakura's shoulders slumped, and she gave him an unconvincing smile. "We train a lot for that, too, but no one can train on one thing only for weeks and weeks -- well, maybe you can, Mister Simple-minded, but I need a change of pace sometimes."

Naruto squeaked in indignation. "Sakura-chan! How could you call me that?"

She blinked at him, a picture of innocence itself. "What, single-minded? You are! It's a good thing, too, being capable of so much concentration and determination..."

"Simple! You said simple!" Naruto protested loudly, pointing at her. He grabbed at his heart when she chuckled, stepping away from her. "Cruel!"

"Aw, it's a good thing not to be complicated. At least you never worry yourself sick over things, it must be nice..."

Naruto stepped closer again, peering at her in concern. "Yeah, and then when I get in trouble, I don't have a clue how it happened." Not that it bugged him, because he always found a way to get past it. Or get over it. But it wasn't a way of thinking that would fit her anyway; after all, she had so much to lose and, most of the time, he had nowhere to go but up. "Sakura-chan..."

"Ah, don't worry, I just like to fret. I'm sure everything will turn out all right."

He reached out to touch her arm, and when she tried to smile again, he took her hand and squeezed it gently. "Hey, that's my line."

Sakura sighed, shoulders slumping a little, and squeezed his hand back. "You're nice..."

Naruto shook his head, moving in front of her, and stared at her. "No, really, everything will turn out all right. We're going to fix it."

Sakura paused, staring at him. Naruto didn't smile back, or not a lot; he didn't want her to think he was joking to make her feel better. No, he was serious, he wasn't going to let anything happen to her. Well, technically, he wasn't going to let Sasuke let anything happen to her, but that was the same thing.

"How... How can you be so _sure_? There's no magic shortcut to make it all better, no amazing jutsu you can master in three days to defeat the problem--"

"Hah!" he exclaimed, cutting her off. Sure there was -- oops.

She stared at him, green eyes a little wide and a lot incredulous.

"... Naruto?"

"Err, yes, Sakura-chan?" he replied, grinning nervously, and winced as her eyes narrowed and she peered at him like she hadn't seen him in years.

"Is that... Naruto?" He saw her swallow, rub her hands over her thighs nervously. "Is that what Sasuke-kun is doing?"

Naruto winced. Damn it! He wasn't supposed to tell her anything about it before they were reasonably sure that it was possible! Sasuke would be so pissed if Naruto told her now -- but she needed to know, she was so worried and it was her health after all, Sasuke would understand --

She waved it off when he was still in the process of opening his mouth. "Ah -- no, never mind, pretend I didn't say anything."

"But, Sakura-chan--"

She bit her lip, whispered, "Sasuke-kun asked me to trust him. And it wouldn't be fair to you to make you talk... Just -- promise me you'll tell me as soon as you can. Alright? Promise me."

Naruto nodded, unable to look up at her. "I promise."

They stood face to face in silence, until a housewife bustled by, tsk-ing at them. Naruto jumped aside to let her past, blushing a little. "Um. So. Let's go -- is Ino waiting for you again?"

She relaxed a little as they started walking again, enough to smile more naturally. "Ah, I'm not going to Ino's today. Well, not right away... I'm going to have dinner with my parents first, and then I'll go back."

"Oh, alright... Hey, Sakura?" He ruffled his hair nervously, and looked up at the graying sky. "Why don't you move back in with your parents? I thought you were getting tired of bugging Ino's family..."

"Heh. No, it's alright; I'd like to live with you two better, is all."

"But you're not angry at your parents anymore, right? So..."

"Well, no, but if I came back, they'd want it to be for good, and then it would be a miniature drama all over again when I move out. At least like this I can wean us all slowly, do you see?"

Naruto scratched his head quizzically. "Not really, no. If you liked living with them, and they're not forbidding you to ever come back..."

"Oh, Naruto..."

Okay, what had he done to prompt that sympathetic look and sudden handholding? He was a bit confused. He squeezed back, anyway, interlacing their fingers, laughing a little at his own clumsiness.

"It's just that... I left; I'm an adult now. I'm not their little girl anymore. I'm still their daughter, and I know I'll always be welcome, but... I just don't want to come back with my tail between my legs."

Naruto grinned, swinging their joined hands. "And you say that Sasuke's got more pride than common sense."

"I've never said that!" she replied, offended. Naruto just stared at her, trying very hard not to snigger. "Okay... I might have thought it. A few times."

"Uh huh. 'Course, Sakura-chan. Sasuke is soo perfect."

She sniffed disdainfully, chin up. "Well, he is."

He hadn't been laughing more than three seconds when she joined him. He gave her hand a squeeze, deliriously happy; she still wasn't pulling away, and here they were, laughing together as they strolled down the street.

"This feels kind of like a date, doesn't it?"

She blushed. "That -- Naruto, we're just walking, my parents are waiting..."

"So? It's a walk date. A tiny one." He looked at her, hopeful; she seemed so unsure, he was afraid she'd say no. Maybe it was too soon for her to want to be romantic one-on-one with him...

When she finally nodded, with a put-upon sigh and laughing green eyes, he did a little dance of joy in the middle of the street.

"You're so silly," she giggled, and then he was kissing her and he wasn't sure how it had happened. She didn't shove him off; he lingered. Her lips were soft, and she smelled of flowers and pears. ...And ozone and chloroform. After an afternoon manipulating raw chakra and doing weird stuff to helpless animals, it shouldn't have been a surprise.

"Um."

They blinked together, nose to nose.

"Er. Hi?"

"... Dork."

Naruto pouted, with some difficulty. He wanted to smile more. "You're so cruel to me."

"Yes, I am an evil, cruel witch," Sakura replied lightly, tugging on his hand as she started walking again, slowly.

Naruto hummed a little song until the next crossroad. Yep, this was a date all right. A short one, but whatever. He just needed to find something to make it a bit more official. Food was probably out...

"Oh hey, look!" he exclaimed, pointing at a shop window. "That would look pretty good, don't you think so?"

Sakura gave him a weird look as he pulled her toward the shop. "You want to wear a dress?"

"Haha! No, on you, I meant."

Sakura blushed. "Don't be silly! It's cut way too low in front."

Naruto leered. "How is that a problem again?"

"Pervert." Sakura swatted at him; he rubbed his shoulder with a grin and pressed close to the glass again, looking for the price tag.

"How is it perverted to want my girlfriend to wear pretty stuff? It's not even sleazy, just a little more cleavage than you usually show." ... Bit expensive, though, especially with the state of his finances at the moment. Damn.

And Sakura hadn't hit him yet for that comment. He blinked at her, wondering if he had said something wrong. She was red and wide-eyed again, fidgeting with the hem of her tunic.

"You -- hah, it figures that you know exactly how much cleavage I usually show."

Naruto gave her the wobbliest puppy eyes he could. "Yeah, and that's 'not at all', unless it's warm enough for you to pull down your zipper a bit."

"That's -- I -- Naruto, you're a lecher."

... She was still not hitting him. And the accusation had lacked conviction. How strange. "Sakura-chan...?"

"Besides I don't have anything special to show, anyway!" she blurted out, and then looked away in embarrassment.

Naruto stepped away from the window, confused. "Uh. Sakura?"

"Come on, let's go, it's starting to rain."

"What?" he replied dumbly. Sure, the air was getting a bit cool, but it was still comfortable; the problem was that she wasn't looking at him.

"If I tell you that I like your boobs just fine, will you hit me?"

She glared at him -- or pouted maybe. "You like them just because you've got a shot at getting your hands on them. I wonder why you like me, I mean, I'm not your usual type."

Naruto stumbled after her as she dragged him down the street, bewildered. "I dunno, because I love you? And they're Sakura breasts, so they're immediately superior. I mean, Sasuke breasts would rank pretty high, too, but mostly because they'd crack me up so hard."

Sakura stopped so sharply that he bumped into her. She looked like she didn't know if she should laugh or be disturbed. "What's with you and putting breasts on Sasuke? The other day, already..."

"Come on, isn't that the most hilarious idea ever?"

Sakura snickered. "Oh, yes, it's up there with you as a giggling bimbo."

"Hey, that's mean! My jutsu is a ruse, that's all! Unless one of you was interested, but I think Sasuke's scared I'll smother him, so my girl shape is pretty much all yours." He waggled his eyebrows, and dodged a slap to the head with a laugh.

"You really are a total pervert."

"Yep -- ack!" Naruto brushed cold water off his ear, startled. "Hey, it's raining."

"I told you that it was five minutes ago, weren't you listening?"

"It wasn't raining then!" Naruto protested as they started to walk a little faster.

"It just wasn't raining on you!"

In the time it took them to reach the next crossroad, the rain went from a few drops here and there to a regular shower. Sakura was all but running, shoulders hunched, and Naruto couldn't help but be disgruntled. At this rate, they were going to arrive at her parents' way too soon. And on top of that, the stupid rain was ruining the mood. Too bad he didn't own an umbrella -- but there was still other stuff he could do.

"Wait, wait, Sakura-chan!" he called as he unzipped his jacket. One of the scrolls almost fell off as she watched, and he swore. He'd forgotten.

"So that's what you were carrying. They're going to fall, Naruto," she grumbled, a hand over her forehead to keep the rain from getting in her eyes. Her hair was stuck in damp tendrils to her neck, and her shirt was sleeveless. He wasn't really worried she'd catch a cold, but still, it was probably uncomfortable.

"No, no, they won't!" He stuck the scrolls deeper into the inner pockets, and then pulled his jacket over his head, stretching out his arm to give her some shelter.

She didn't move, staring at him.

"... What, do I have something on my face? Come on, you're getting all wet." He stepped toward her, moving to encompass her, and then realized fully that to be close enough to shield her from the rain, he had to be close enough that he could feel her body heat against his whole chest.

He was so busy patting himself on the back for that smooth move, that it took him a few minutes to notice how badly she was blushing and avoiding looking his way. And then a few seconds longer to get why.

Note to self, buy more mesh shirts.

"So, um. Are those scrolls what you were getting for Sasuke?"

"Hm? Ah -- yeah." he grinned, and hoped that she wouldn't recognize the green one. "I hope I got everything on his list, but his writing looks like chicken scratch, and they've all got fancy kanji."

She hummed thoughtfully, still not looking his way. "He must be very busy..."

"I thought you weren't going to ask anymore?" Naruto groused, secretly amused.

"Okay, okay, sorry."

Naruto gave her an awkward hug, and then had to steer her away from a little dog on a leash when she got blinded by the folds of his jacket. "Oops!"

In the end, he decided, the rain didn't make this much less of a date, because she was laughing as she leaned against his side, tucking herself under his arm, while his jacket and the rain blocked out the world around them until it was just the two of them.

"I don't really need to ask," Sakura whispered a minute later. Naruto had to rack his brain to remember what she was talking about.

"Oh, neat. Wait, you don't?"

She looked up at him, and her face was so close he was tempted to kiss her again, and to hell with their conversation. But he wanted to make sure that she knew they were doing everything in their power to help her, so he waited.

"I'm not stupid. You don't want to tell me because you don't want to give me any false hopes, and Sasuke doesn't want to tell me because I'd probably shoot it down."

Naruto was aware that his guilty silence said more than words would have, but he couldn't find a good enough lie. "Um, but if it works, why would you shoot it down?"

Sakura gave him a sidelong glance. "Well, duh! If you two found a way to do it that Tsunade-sama didn't even consider, it must be because it's utterly crazy."

Naruto winced.

"Or forbidden."

Naruto coughed and made sure to look where he was stepping with all due attention. Oh hey, they were turning into the Harunos' street now.

"...Or both."

"Oh god, Sasuke is going to kill me," Naruto whimpered.

Sakura grinned at him suddenly, startling him; he'd been excepting an angry tirade. "Why would he? It's his fault I guessed. He was the one asking me to trust him and wait. Why would he do that for anything else? There's nothing else he would need to hide from me but not from you, is there? Well, nothing so serious."

"You know, you're really too smart sometimes. But seriously, it's Sasuke's fault? Hah!" Naruto did a little dance, which ended up forcing Sakura to stumble after him, seeing as her head was caught in his jacket.

"Naruto!" she protested, glaring daggers at him. "I lied, it's all your fault."

"Hey, not fair!"

"Yes, fair, you're so transparent."

"And you're so mean, I wonder why -- eek!"

They had been maybe three houses away from her parents' home. Now they were in the narrow passage between two buildings, stumbling over each other. It was dark and damp and the bricks were rough under his palms, and one of his sleeves was covering his eye and Sakura's arms were around his waist.

Oh.

"... Hi, there."

She smiled at him in the dark, and pushed the dangling sleeve away from his face gently. "Dork."

And then there was kissing, with lips brushing and breaths mingling, and her body against his, all warm and soft and welcoming, and her hands rubbing up and down his back, and yes, yes, definitely buy more mesh shirts. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, protecting her head from the wall; his other hand caressed her arm as they kept giving each other soft, teasing kisses.

"You're gonna be late," he whispered as she nibbled his lower lip.

"Hokage-sama let me out early -- then we ran..." He nibbled back; she gasped and giggled softly. "I think we've got some time."

"Oh, _good_," he groaned before leaning against her and tightening his hold. He hadn't gotten to make out with her in -- had he ever gotten to make out with her? They'd kissed, and cuddled, and there had been some fleeting caresses...

Every time her hand ran back up his spine, he wanted to arch, and purr. He groaned instead, low, deep in his throat; she sighed, shivering as she arched into him. Her waist was so slim, one arm was enough to catch her. He curled around her, enfolding her in his arms as he nuzzled her cheek, mouthed her neck.

He caressed her hips when she started caressing the small of his back, and when she jumped at the first touch against her butt, his hands retreated quickly. He was going to die if she decided to end things there. It was only when she pressed their hips together, fingers playing with the hem of his back pocket, that he dared to touch her again. Hips, outsides of her thighs... back of her thighs... still no protest? He cupped her butt with both hands, groaning when he felt her fingers slipping under his waistband and teasing his skin, and couldn't help but grin into the kiss as he remembered how different Sasuke's ass felt.

He would certainly never grope Sakura's butt hard enough to bruise, but petting and stroking it gently were more than rewarding enough, especially when she moaned quietly against his neck and arched into him like that -- ohh, hips-to-hips friction...

And then she was giggling against his shoulder, and he couldn't help but laugh with her, even though he didn't know why.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Is that --" a snicker, "Is that a scroll in your pocket..."

"Oh, that's so lame even I wouldn't say it!" Naruto retorted, chortling along with her. "Dork yourself."

"No, you're the dork."

"No, _you _-- mmh."

She wasn't going to distract him with tongue. He was -- what was he saying again? Oh yeah. He was a dork. Mm, French kissing. Mm, her belly against his groin... MmACK! One of the stupid scrolls had just fallen in a puddle. Swearing, he twisted to pick it up before it was drenched, and then gave Sakura an apologetic look. She was flushed, her eyes dark and her lips red, so instead of apologizing out loud, he just kissed her again.

They ended up cuddling against the wall, with him still curled around Sakura, and the rain still dripping over Naruto's jacket. He still had a hard-on, but it only made the moment better. Of course, later on, when he would leave unsatisfied, he wouldn't think the same; oh well.

"Why did we never do this before?" he mused, eyes closed in pleasure as he played with her damp hair.

There was a moment where the only noises were the rain and their breaths, and then Sakura whispered, "I didn't want things to change."

"... Eh?"

"It wasn't really voluntary..."

"Well, I hope not," he replied confused.

She sighed, burrowing in his arms. He rubbed her back, waiting for the rest of the explanation.

"I wouldn't have really tried to get out of a situation like this... But i wasn't looking for them either. It's a nice change, but in my head it probably was just one too many. So... I'm sorry, Naruto."

"... Ah. I see." Well, he hadn't really pushed things along all that much either, but they'd been busy, and then things had fallen into a semi-comfortable routine. He would have been happy with more sex, but he hadn't died from a lack of it. Though... On second thought, it might have made Sasuke mellow enough to be tolerable. Well, damn. "So you feel really guilty and you'll make out with me a lot to compensate, right?"

She glowered at him, pouting, and then she nipped his chin and snickered. "You're incorrigible."

"But you like me anyway."

He was expecting a laugh, some teasing maybe; instead, she nodded and tucked her head under his chin.

They cuddled a little while longer, holding on a little tighter every time one of them shivered from a gust of damp air, or a drop of water down their shirts; but when the rain stopped, there was really no choice but to disengage.

"I'm going to be late now," Sakura whispered as she stood back, holding his hands between their bodies.

"You won't get in trouble?"

"No, Hokage-sama keeps me later sometimes. But..."

"... Yeah. So, um, you're going now?"

"No. Now you're walking me home. Some date you are," she added, teasing. She was blushing, too, so he didn't mind. Smiling -- he didn't think the smile was going to come off anytime soon -- he put his jacket back on and followed her back out of the narrow passage, and held her hand for the whole three houses' length there was left to her door.

He had a feeling her father knew what they'd just been up to, and was really glad that he had the excuse of having to go back to Sasuke's; the invitation to dinner was really nice, but it was hard to be comfortable with a man when you had just made out with his daughter all but under his window.

oOoOoOooOoOoOooOoOoOo

And I wanted to post the chapter for my birthday, but I didn't manage to complete it in time, so I'm only posting the first half now. If I wait for it to be complete I might lose my inspiration again and it might be another five or six months. XD; Second half of chapter 6 (not chapter 7! me and my weird obsession about 1 chapter equals 1 POV) will unveil The Plan, for real.


	7. Kakashi : The Plan, Interlude

If I'm going to mess up my chapter order, I'm going to do it in style! X'D This is a missing scene from Naruto's chapter, mostly because he was nowhere near that place when it happened. It's not really necessary to his chapter, though it does shed some light on some of Sasuke's behavior, but hey! Kakashi insisted.

The second half of Naruto's chapter is mostly done; but there's still they key scene of the whole chapter to type up, and I really don't want to mess it up, so I don't know how long that will take.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Inutile Interrupting Interlude **:p  
**(Kakashi)**

If Sasuke had been a little more patient, Kakashi would have been gone by the time he broke into his apartment; but Sasuke being who he was, Kakashi was still in the bathroom when he heard his student fiddle with the lock. Kakashi took the time to finish washing his hands, and then opened the bathroom door, leaned against the doorframe and gave him a lenient nod of greeting.

"Sasuke. Is there something I can do for you?"

If one day he decided to ditch the mask, Kakashi thought absently as he watched Sasuke switch gears and spin a -- rather convincing -- lie on the spot, he would have to learn to control his facial features all over again. It was just too easy to grin behind it. As it was, the mask obscured his features enough that Sasuke couldn't tell whether or not Kakashi had swallowed his excuse, and that was always amusing.

"More difficult jutsu, huh." Kakashi hummed thoughtfully as he stepped toward his coffee table. He started to fold his clothes negligently. "You don't mean A and S-rank jutsu, do you? You know I have to submit those to approval before I can teach them." He didn't add 'to you'. Most teachers were free, and even encouraged, to transmit any jutsu they knew to their pupils; but this was one of the restrictions against Sasuke that had never been officially raised.

Though sometimes he just happened to use one when Sasuke just happened to have his sharingan activated; if he hadn't, he was pretty sure Sasuke would be long gone. But there were some jutsu that no one would ever accept he'd 'just happened' anything with.

Sasuke's annoyance at the reminder wasn't faked, at least. There was a darker edge to it; Kakashi didn't know what it was from, but he could make an educated guess. Sasuke didn't like knowing that his people were vulnerable any more than Kakashi did.

"I know," Sasuke replied, and looked away.

Kakashi watched for a few seconds, as the young man stood tensely by his door, and then he sighed. "Ahh. Of course, of course. Nothing but the best for my cute little student," he added facetiously.

Sasuke slanted him a cynical look. "You know, calling us cute was already creepy when we were kids, but now it's downright disturbing."

Kakashi smiled genially, and stacked up his shirts, humming. "Is it? I would have thought it would be the other way around."

"...You like those 'Paradise' rags too much to be a pedophile," Sasuke retorted.

"Oi, oi. I buy them for the engaging storyline and brilliant prose."

He managed to pull a snort out of Sasuke, which really wasn't too bad these days.

"...I'll put in the request tomorrow."

Sasuke nodded. When he looked away from Kakashi, Kakashi took it as 'I would thank you if I knew how, but that would imply acknowledging that you're going out of your way for me'. Kakashi returned to his folding casually as a 'you're welcome'.

And Sasuke was still standing by the door, tense and visibly reviewing his options.

"Come in, come in. I'd offer you some tea, but I don't have any. Tap water?"

"I'm alright." Sasuke gave him a dubious look and ventured deeper into Kakashi's tiny apartment.

"So what brings you? For real this time." Kakashi wondered if Sasuke was going to tell the truth. Well, a truth, at least.

Though even if he did, Kakashi doubted it would be the main reason behind his presence here.

Sasuke twitched, probably considered playing stupid, and eventually shrugged it off. If he hadn't wanted anything else other than the jutsu, he would be long gone already and they both knew it. "... Just wondering where we're going to find a place, but you don't look like a realtor to me."

Interesting how Sasuke ordered the importance of his secrets. He already knew what Kakashi had to say on the subject of housing, and he knew he wasn't going to like hearing it again; but misdirections were better when they were also true.

So Kakashi played along. "I thought you already had a place, Sasuke."

Beside him, Sasuke went still. Kakashi picked up his clothes and started putting them away in the dresser to offer him some privacy.

"Kakashi-sensei..." Sasuke paused; tried again. "Why do you _want _me to go back there?"

"Do I?" Kakashi kept refolding his shirts and putting them away, with a care they hadn't known since leaving the shop he'd bought them from. "I just assumed you would, eventually. You wouldn't want your many children to grow up in a tiny apartment, would you?"

"Many?" Sasuke repeated disbelievingly. "You're making it sound like Sakura is going to have a litter."

"Heh. You'd make a wonderful father of twelve, I'm sure." Kakashi smiled teasingly over his shoulder, and then sobered up slightly. "I just have some trouble seeing you raising your children and grandchildren in some overpopulated downtown building."

Sasuke was quiet a while longer; Kakashi wondered if he had pushed too hard. No doubt the brat had never really envisioned his future that far.

"That... Yes. You're right." Sasuke's voice was a little too soft; Kakashi didn't turn back, even though he was now down to ordering his socks according to size. "I would have gone back anyway."

"It isn't a bad place to live," Kakashi continued casually. "Spacious. Pleasant. Peaceful. Easily defendable. And it has nice trees, too."

Kakashi knew what made Sasuke start, and it wasn't the trees. He puttered a few seconds longer, and then turned back around. By then, Sasuke's expression was cool and collected once again.

"That's a valid suggestion, I guess. I'll think about it." Sasuke straightened up, his bearing arrogant and self-assured once again, and nodded at Kakashi. "Thank you, sensei."

Kakashi waved goodbye casually as Sasuke turned and left, and then he stepped up to his bookcase and chuckled at the artful way the volumes had been spread, so they'd cover the hole the missing one had left. Cheeky little brat.


	8. Naruto : The Plan, part b, The Seal

:is alive!:

-I don't write fast. It's pretty obvious. Also, this half of a chapter is _60 pages long_. I planned the whole thing (a and b) to be around 30 pages total, but like hell it listened to me. :shakes fist at it: Stupid bunnies. Point being **: a hundred thanks to everyone who sent me comments on the fic, and asked politely about the fic's status.** I'm sorry I suck and didn't reply to everyone. ;.; There's a "Teamwork status" section in my profile now, please check it out when you're wondering where's the next part.  
To everyone who yelled at me to hurry up, I'mma gonna start bitchslapping you if you keep that up. I write because I feel like it and post because I want to share with the nice readers, not because I'm you whiny entitlement brats' writing slave, thanks. :D

-Yeah, I'm aware that my Sakura is very much not current canon!Sakura. It bothers me too, because I like kickass!determined!Sakura better than sidelined!unsure!weak!Sakura. :sigh:

The problem is, in this world she doesn't have the same motivation. I had a two-pages-long babble typed up to explain my reasoning (if you're interested, look for it here: askerian(dot)livejournal(dot)com(slash)356112(dot)html ) Long story short, in the Teamwork universe, there was a Valley of the End incident, but Naruto succeeded. He brought Sasuke back. Sakura never had any reason to cast away her indecisiveness and throw herself at her training like a woman drowning, so while she did grow up since then, she's lacking the critical life-altering event that triggered her change into rawr!kickass!Sakura. As a result, she's a lot more like part 1 Sakura than part 2. That's going to change, very soon. Please trust me a little while longer?

(It doesn't mean that you're wrong if you noticed her characterization wavering. I have a really hard time keeping her consistent. But if your complain is that she's generally too weak and the boys have to handle her with kid gloves, there's a reason. As an aside, the boys treating her like that is NOT supposed to be a super-good thing. It's just a habit they've fallen into.)

-Beta still by Windshades. You're amazing, love, thank you.

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Plan (part b****, The Seal)**

**(Still Naruto)**

Naruto arrived back home only to trip on a box, and barely managed to hang onto the door by the tips of his fingers.

"Ack!"

He stared at the box, confused. It was full of his things : weapon cleaning kit, an old kunai pouch, a wad of explosive tag paper, his frog wallet, and other odds and ends which had progressively spilled from his bags onto the floor around the couch. For a moment, he thought...

"...Sasuke?" he called, staring at the box. It was brown, cardboard, and very unassuming.

"We're moving. Did you get the scrolls?"

We. Naruto relaxed. We. Whatever it was, it was alright -- waitasec. "Ah -- yeah, yeah, I got them. We're moving?"

Sasuke was in the kitchen, stacking up pots and pans. "Yes. Your scrolls and weapons are in there. I washed your pile of dirty clothes along with some of mine; they're drying."

"Oh. Okay," he replied amiably. "Uh, by the way, Sasuke, _what the fuck_?"

"Did you go deaf?" Sasuke retorted, rolling his eyes at Naruto before turning away again.

"Did you go _crazy_? I leave for a few hours and when I come back, we're in the middle of moving? I thought we agreed that there weren't any good places in the paper!"

Sasuke grunted, and wound a length of wire through the biggest pot's handles to keep the little pots inside. "We're going to the Uchiha compound."

Oh, alright, that made perfect sense. _Not_. Just the other day, Sasuke had had a massive breakdown about that stupid compound, and now he wanted to go back? Naruto admitted that living there -- in one of the houses that weren't burned to the ground, that is -- would be the easiest way, but after due thought... The last time they'd been inside the district's walls, Sasuke had lost it. Naruto wasn't willing to stay there if it put his teammate on edge. "... You hit your head, didn't you?"

"Naruto, shut up, and go get blankets. They're in the closet in my bedroom."

"What the hell! No, I'm not your lackey."

Sasuke hissed between his clenched teeth, as if forcing himself to breathe out because Naruto was Just. That. Annoying.

Like Sasuke wasn't the one willfully being an ass!

"Fine, stay here, I don't care. I've warned the landlord that I'm not renewing the lease, though, so you have ten days left before you have to find somewhere else to stay."

Naruto stood there and watched him, fists balled at his sides, unable to believe it. "You... You utter _asshole_."

Sasuke barely grunted in acknowledgment, and opened a closet in the corridor. Naruto stalked toward him and slammed the door closed under his nose, hand firmly set in the middle of the panel. "Don't you think maybe you should consult other people before you make that kind of decision?! You want to move, so we both have to move? What the hell, I live here, too!"

Sasuke closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose; Naruto wanted to hit him, all the good humor from his date with Sakura evaporated. How dare Sasuke act like Naruto was the one behaving like an unreasonable, irrational ass?

"You're missing the point."

"Well, then, _tell_ me the point, instead of assuming that I can read your twisted brain and immediately know what the hell you're on about! When I left, you were just fine staying here! You didn't seem to even want to leave the apartment unless there was a fire or something! And now you want something else and I should just have guessed--"

Sasuke hissed again, and finally turned to face him. "Shut up, Naruto! It's not about what I want. It's about _what we need_. And right now, we need more space." He gave a long, meaningful look at the pockets full of scrolls Naruto had stolen from the restricted section and the Hokage. "And fewer neighbors."

"... Oh." Naruto pushed away from the closet to free Sasuke, still pouting. "Would it have been it so hard to tell me first, instead of just -- argh. You're annoying."

He stomped into Sasuke's bedroom, throwing open the closet doors to dig out the blankets. He figured that they'd be camping out for a few days, or something. There was a sleeping bag, too, but it seemed a bit old, and anyway they had the ones they used on missions.

He wasn't sure he liked the idea of Sasuke going back to the Uchiha district so soon, but if Sasuke said he could, then the only thing calling him on it would bring would be broken bones. And the jerk had lived there from age eight to thirteen, after all, and he hadn't died or anything.

Wait, it had ended with the Orochimaru fiasco.

But if Sasuke said he could... Rrrrgh. Hn. Whatever. Naruto bet no one like the amazing Uzumaki Naruto had ever lived inside the Uchiha district's walls. He would totally make it non-gloomy enough for the three of them.

Four of them, maybe.

... Damn, it was hard to stay angry when he was reminded of that little detail. Hugest little detail in the world, that was. Still pouting a bit, on principle, he picked up a huge armful of blankets and stomped outside, giving Sasuke a resentful look as he capitulated. "... Fine, fine. Whatever. Still, we could have talked about it first."

"What for? It was the only viable decision."

Oh, he was so -- so -- ARGH! "There are days I really hate your guts, you know."

Naruto piled his blankets on the kitchen counter. By the table, Sasuke was surveying the stuff he'd packed critically. Naruto could see cleaning products in there, amongst the pans and food and toilet paper; he couldn't help but snicker a bit.

"It's a good thing you're such a perfect little housewife, or I might divorce you."

Sasuke glared at him, but didn't snap back with whatever insult he'd had in mind. Damn. It wasn't funny when Sasuke pulled the 'more mature than you' card.

"Housewife nothing; you're the one who's going to be cleaning out the house this evening. I have to read the scrolls you brought."

"Oi! That's not fair!"

Sasuke sighed. "Stop whining and get your traveling bag. We're just camping out for tonight; we'll make trips back and forth tomorrow for the rest."

Good to know that Naruto could still predict Sasuke some of the time. "Well, since you've got it all planned out, your Majesty. Got a house in mind?"

"...Yes, actually. The house seemed in good condition the last time I saw it; it should be livable."

They picked up everything -- the traveling backpacks, the additional blankets, the cooking utensils and food -- then Naruto went out and waited for Sasuke to lock the door. They were loaded down like pack mules; one of the neighbors stared at them as they trudged down the stairs. Naruto grinned back; the old man looked away with a huff.

"So, what made you decide to move so fast?" he asked Sasuke as they made their way through Konoha.

Sasuke shrugged, looking away. "Something I found in one of Kakashi's books. The phases of the moon matter, apparently, and I don't want to waste a month."

Naruto blinked. "That's weird -- wait, figures. 'He' did say Sakura only had three days to choose whether to keep the child or not because it was the full moon soon, or something." It was strange to think that it had only been two months since that night; it felt like forever, and those few days had been so frantic, so full of life-changing events. "Does it matter for real? I didn't think jutsus worked like that..."

Sasuke frowned, and gave the street around them a suspicious look. "I'm not giving you a lesson in elemental resonance _now_." Naruto heard the unspoken 'in the middle of the street'. "Just think of it as an extension of the rule that makes it easier to use Suiton jutsus in areas where there's water close by."

Naruto scratched his head, almost let the blankets drop, and caught them again with a sheepish wince. "But Moon isn't an element."

"Mmh. But it -- 'che." Now Sasuke looked bothered, as if he didn't know where to start.

"Yeah, maybe you should discuss that with Sakura-chan," Naruto commiserated, and gave Sasuke a 'what can you do' smile and a shrug. It was disappointing to want to understand something, for once, and to know that he didn't have the right level of knowledge for even the basics, but... Naruto didn't think himself stupid -- he got great ideas regularly, and no one had ever accused him of learning a hard jutsu too slowly... well, not recently -- but he wasn't an academic either, so maybe it really was a waste of time to explain it to him.

"Oh, yeah. Mind copying the stuff you need quickly? I'll replace the old hag's scroll tomorrow... Provided it's the right one."

"What do you mean, provided it's the right one? I thought you remembered what it looked like."

"Yeah, but there were two alike and then they all fell, so I grabbed the closest one, but I'm not sure it's the right one. Either way, she's gonna notice soon."

Sasuke's scowl deepened, but in the end he shrugged. "Fine, fine. I shouldn't need to keep it that long. Kakashi's book gave me a good lead, I just need details..."

Sasuke's voice trailed off as he thought; and then he gave Naruto a sidelong glance. Naruto wondered what he was plotting now.

"You'll put Kakashi's book back, too."

"Oi! What for?"

"I can't show up there two times in a row."

"Ah, and me showing up just after you doesn't look weird -- what does it matter anyway, no one saw you, right?"

Naruto stared in confusion at Sasuke's back as the black-haired boy stalked ahead.

"What? Someone saw you? Hah! Talk about a great ninja; you got caught by one of his neighbors--"

"He wasn't gone," Sasuke muttered through clenched teeth.

"He wasn't? What the heck, I thought he was doing something this afternoon! Something more important than training." Naruto stomped alongside Sasuke, annoyed. It figured that Kakashi would consider lazing around his apartment all afternoon to be more important than training his students.

Sasuke gave him a huff, and looked away, muttering under his breath. "Yeah, that's what I thought, too."

Naruto was tempted to laugh at Sasuke for being caught, but then Sakura and Tsunade had almost caught him, too. Anyway, what was bastard-sensei doing at home that was more important than training, seriously?

Similarly disgruntled, the boys trudged towards the Uchiha compound.

* * *

"Hey, is it the right scroll?"

"Nope."

"What? You can't be serious. Aw man, of all the days for my luck to run out."

"Eh. Doesn't matter. Turns out I didn't need it after all."

"Wait, _what_?"

"Mmh. Weren't you washing the windows?"

"... That's a big collar you've got there, you know. Say, on a scale of one to ten, how pissed would you be if I lost my grip on the soap just --"

"Naruto!"

"-- now? Hahaha."

"... I'm going to kill you."

"Oi, careful of the books there. Don't--"

"This better not end in a 'drop the soap' joke."

"... Hehe."

* * *

"If my father catches you here, he'll probably kill you dead first and interrogate your remains later, you know," Ino commented as she leaned lazily over Naruto. Naruto grinned up at her, and shifted his hold on her windowsill.

"Aw, come on, my intentions are honorable and all. Really."

The girl laughed, high and musical, and moved aside, letting Naruto pull the rest of his body up. Dumb anti-chakra sticking stuff on the walls, he'd fallen off once already before he'd managed to get a good grip. He straddled the windowsill and looked inside Ino's bedroom curiously. It was all done in greens and golds, with some pink here and there; and just as full of pretty, breakable things as Sakura's bedroom had been the only time he'd visited. Naruto briefly wondered if Sakura would want to litter their place with tons of glass butterflies and other frou-frous. The thought made him grin stupidly, even with the accompanying image of himself ruining her knickknacks and getting murdered.

"Where's Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked. There was a futon spread out beside Ino's bed, but apart from the blonde girl, the room was empty.

"She's in the bathroom. What did you say you... two," Ino added, as she noticed Sasuke standing on the roof facing hers; "...were doing here?"

"Kidnapping, of course!" Naruto retorted with a sly grin. "And if I'm lucky," he added, whispering, "perhaps even some good, old-fashioned molesting."

Ino burst into giggles, and covered her mouth with a hand, the perfect, well-bred lady. "Between you and me, she might need some of that. Come in, before someone notices you."

Naruto hopped inside just as the door opened. Naruto grinned disarmingly. Whether it was Ino's dad or Sakura, looking nice and harmless would help. It was Sakura; the grin became a bit more appreciative when he noticed that she was wearing a large t-shirt, and even bigger, fuzzy sweatpants, and still toweling off her hair. So cute!

"Evening, Sakura-chan!"

She stared at him, pausing in mid-rub. "Naruto? What are you doing here?"

"They're kidnapping you," Ino informed her dutifully, staring at her nails with rapt attention. She wasn't smirking, but from her tone she might as well have been.

"... 'They'?" Sakura repeated as she slowly lowered the towel. "What -- Naruto, it's almost _ten _in the evening, I'm exhausted..."

A little late on his cue, Sasuke appeared on the windowsill, balanced in a perfect crouch and looking as if he'd always been there. Show-off.

"Pack your things, Sakura."

Sakura goggled at Sasuke, then at Naruto. "But -- what?"

Naruto patted her shoulder consolingly. "Yeah, His Majesty has spoken."

"But I can't just--"

"Aw, come on! Where's your sense of adventure?"

"In bed, and I was hoping to join it soon," she replied acerbically.

"Wah! Sakura-chan has been cheating on us with an anthropomorphic personification of a concept!"

The all stared at him, as if he'd sprouted horns and wings. He grinned his best shit-eating grin right back.

"... You were actually _listening_ to that nonsense on the radio?" Sasuke finally asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

"It sounded pretty neat," Naruto replied truthfully, and gave him the most innocent look he could manage.

"And how the hell did you remember it? I bet I can't even pronounce it," Ino retorted, disgusted.

"Um. I practiced."

Sakura started laughing along with Ino, and even Sasuke snorted, turning away to hide his amusement. Or maybe it was contempt, but Naruto wanted to be optimistic, and besides, Sasuke tended to mix the two liberally, anyway.

"Dork," Sakura uttered, shaking her head sadly even as she smiled at him.

"Hey!" Naruto protested, for the principle.

"Pack up your stuff, Sakura," Sasuke said again. Naruto couldn't help but notice that with her, the bastard could actually sound like he was making a suggestion and not giving orders. Hn.

"Everything?"

From Sakura's desolate look, she was probably thinking that they were about to run away from Konoha again. Naruto winced, and chuckled ruefully. "Ah, at least enough for tonight and tomorrow. You can come back for the rest tomorrow."

"Alright," Sakura capitulated after a last questioning glance at Sasuke. Crouching, a knee on her futon, she started adding stuff to a little backpack. "I just don't want to leave without saying goodbye to Ino's parents."

"And to me?" Ino asked tartly, and frowned imperiously at the two boys before Sakura could answer. "Where are you taking her anyway? If it isn't a secret..."

"Oh, it's not really a secret," Naruto reassured her.

"Sakura can tell you tomorrow," Sasuke cut him.

Naruto blinked at Sasuke. What the heck; why not now? It wasn't like Ino was going to follow and spy on them, or babble to her parents and send the ANBU after them. The bastard was so damn paranoid.

"... Sasuke-kun?" Sakura looked up at the window.

Sasuke jumped off the windowsill, padded to her silently, not even glancing at Naruto as he brushed past him. Leaning over her, he rested a pale hand on Sakura's hand, the one that was holding up her backpack.

"Do you trust me?" Sasuke asked softly.

Naruto wondered why he was saying that now; it was evident that Sakura was going to trust them until they were safe and could explain, there was no need to ask again.

Sakura was sitting on the edge of the futon, neck arched to gaze up at Sasuke with a look of sudden understanding in her slightly-too-wide eyes. "That -- _now_?"

Sasuke nodded, straightened up, abandoning her hand as if he'd never been touching her of his own will at all. Naruto shuddered, blinking. That -- for a moment, he'd almost felt like he was part of their silent communication. But he hadn't been; and he hadn't been the one Sakura's whole body had been angled toward, in unconscious adoration.

Bah! The bastard hadn't gotten a date with her either. It probably hadn't even occurred to him at all.

Sakura was putting on her sandals quickly, a lot more businesslike now. "I'll see you later, Ino-pig," she assured as she jumped to her feet. "Come on, let's go now."

Then she was hurrying Sasuke to the window and tugging Naruto along by the sleeve.

Naruto was about to jump out after them when Ino's hand caught his other sleeve.

"Naruto?" The blonde girl looked worried. "You're not going to do anything stupid, are you? You and Sasuke really are more trouble than you're worth, sometimes."

Naruto's smile gentled a little. "Nah, relax. The only stupid thing that might happen is those two talking and talking until dawn, and I really want to get some molestation in." With that, he jumped onto the next roof, waving back at Ino, and put on a burst of speed to catch up to his teammates.

* * *

Naruto wasn't sure why Sakura was making that wary, pouty face; they'd scrubbed the abandoned Uchiha house clean, in the little time they had before picking her up.

Okay, they'd cleaned up the living room.

Well, the floor and the coffee table weren't too dirty, at any rate. The couch had reeked of mildew and its cushions had been full of mice nests, so they'd pulled it out in the backyard and left it there. Some of the smell lingered despite their best efforts.

Still! It wouldn't be any less comfortable than camping out, and at least they wouldn't get rained on.

... They'd even placed buckets under the leaks in the ceiling.

"Um... Any reason why we're... Here?"

"It has a dojo and no neighbors," Sasuke replied without turning around. He was kneeling by the coffee table, emptying the bag of scrolls and notes. "And the roof is still mostly sound, which isn't the case of many other houses around here," he added with a touch of sarcasm.

Naruto had a feeling that Sakura had been asking what the hell they were doing in the Uchiha district in the first place, even if this house stood almost on the other end of the district from where Sasuke's home had been. He also had a feeling that Sasuke had been fully aware of the nuance. Bah.

"He says we need space to do our thing," Naruto informed Sakura helpfully. "And besides this house could be pretty neat; it just needs a little work."

Sakura gave the moldy walls and the swelled-shut wooden blinds a doubtful look.

"No, seriously, it's got two bathrooms and an attic. And tons of space! We could live here -- or try to," he amended as he caught her expression. "At least until we either fix it or find something better. There would be no rent to pay, and ... We'd have more than enough space to be together," he added, his voice softening unintentionally, and tried not to look too much like he was pleading.

Mollified, she pulled her sleeping bag out of her pack. Naruto's and Sasuke's were folded in two by the coffee table, as seats; she dropped hers facing Sasuke's spot and then sat on it gingerly, watching Sasuke and his notes with trepidation.

"So, what is this grand scheme about?"

Sasuke pushed one of the sheets of paper at her. She picked it up as if it was about to explode. Morbidly curious, Naruto crept closer, taking place on his own sleeping bag at one end of the room.

"I haven't finished the research," Sasuke said quietly as she read.

She blinked, slowly, and looked up at Sasuke as if she had never seen him in her life and wasn't especially thrilled to see him now. "... You want to inject my potentially half-demon child with demon chakra."

"Yes."

"Excuse me, but _are you __**crazy**_?"

Naruto winced at her incredulous tone. "Well, it was my idea -- and no, not into the kid, but into you."

"We need to get it from someone who wouldn't be bothered by the constant drain." Sasuke looked just as stubbornly expressionless; Naruto didn't like it.

"Oh, then I guess that makes it okay."

Naruto winced; Sasuke's eyelid twitched.

"I mean, after all, the Kyuubi will just possess me, and not the child! It isn't like everyone wasn't already worried that the child might be possessed when there was no physical link--"

"And Jiraiya told us that Kyuubi was bound to me now and forever and that he'd die with me!" Naruto cut her off, slamming his palm against the table. Sakura and Sasuke stared at him; he glared back at Sakura, refusing to look down. "Please, we've tried to figure ways to plug the loopholes. It looks doable. Won't you at least look, too? If you find a problem that Sasuke missed, well, then, we'll drop it. But -- come on." He reached out hesitantly, touched her hair, expecting her to bolt any second now. "...Please."

Tsunade's solutions all seemed so half-hearted to him, and he didn't want her to die. He didn't think he could take it.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath. "Well, I guessed right at least. The Council and Hokage-sama will tear us apart."

"Not if it works. It isn't like we're trying to break his seal."

"... But what if we damage it? What if we damage Naruto's seal and his -- tenant starts taking control of him?" She paused, suddenly -- stared at Naruto. "Naruto... How did you get that idea?"

Naruto shrugged. "I just thought that I had so much chakra and you had so little, and there are so many jutsus that drain people's chakra."

"Are you sure," she said softly, "are you absolutely sure that it wasn't Kyuubi's idea?"

Naruto stared at her for a few seconds, and then he grinned insouciantly. "Yep." Reasonably so. He ignored a dark chuckle as the demon fox caught the gist of the conversation; the son of a bitch wasn't going to make him doubt now. Besides, even if it had been Kyuubi's idea first, he trusted his teammates to make sure there would be no nasty surprises. "...He agrees."

"He agrees -- Naruto! What's to say we're not playing right into his hands? How can you even trust him--"

"I don't. But I can tell when he lies," or at least he had never caught Kyuubi in the act, "and he can't leave me. Even if my seal was unraveled now, he'd lose huge chunks of himself and he'd probably die. Sakura-chan... I won't tell you he cares, 'cause he doesn't, but he doesn't really want the kid to die."

Sakura looked down at the scrolls, uneasy. "...In the stories I read, kitsune could possess people."

Sasuke crossed his arms, giving an annoyed sniff. "And that's why we're going to make damn sure that all you get is chakra, and nothing else." He pushed the scrolls at her again; cautiously, as if it might bite, she picked up the first one and reluctantly started reading.

"...A permanent drain?" Sakura frowned, visibly uneasy with the idea. "I'm not sure I like the idea."

"It's semi-permanent; from my calculations, it will last a year or two before all that chakra erodes it. You're free to counter-check."

"I will." Still frowning, she kept reading. Naruto started tapping his fingers on the table in a complicated little rhythm; Sasuke glared him into transferring the tapping to his thigh. Sakura didn't seem to notice.

"Why didn't you explore the possibility of regularly draining Naruto for chakra? There are short-action ninjutsus for that; Kakashi-sensei probably knows a ton, there has to be one that wouldn't hurt Naruto. You went directly with opening a long-lasting conduit between Naruto and me..."

Sasuke lifted his hand, and started counting on his fingers. "First, they would only tap his surface chakra, which would exhaust him as he tries to drag up more from the Kyuubi and convert it to replace the loss; which also means regularly opening himself up to the Kyuubi. Second, none of us has a bloodline or a specialty that would make such a drain doable with simple hand seals. We would either have to draw a circle with all the right patterns over and over again, with all the problems of necessary space and possibility for error that ensue. Or we would have to stop whatever we were doing and come back to the main circle every few days. And there would be a possibility of other people trying to tap into it and steal Naruto's chakra. Third, this way you can get chakra whenever you need it, not just whenever we can stop."

"Also, there would be fewer occasions for people to start getting all hissy and telling us to stop," Naruto added with a nonchalant shrug. "Or to think we're preparing a coup or something."

Sakura scowled. "As if they won't, when they realize that I have a direct pipeline into the hugest source of raw chakra our country has ever known."

"Well, yeah, but they won't be able to break it so easily, and we can convince them that it was for your health and nothing else."

She shook her head. "They'll just separate us. Without a grounded seal, it's harder to keep a connection between two people. There's a reason Tsunade-sama said she'd have to keep me in bed if they tried that with me; if I leave the circle, it weakens the link! It isn't possible to link two people directly without forcing them to regularly be in contact... No, a seal applied directly on someone wouldn't keep up a regular channel. It would weaken with distance and then break," she repeated, stubborn.

"The Heaven seal didn't," Sasuke replied quietly.

Naruto tensed; Sakura flinched. Sasuke's hands were ostensibly resting on the table, as if he wanted to prove that he didn't feel the urge to cover his neck.

"That's -- different," Sakura eventually replied. She wasn't looking at Sasuke, and she sounded a little choked up. "The Heaven seal would have been dormant unless you decided to use it, wasn't it? Whereas this one..."

"This one won't let your reserves get so low that you can't sustain the child. But the rest should be up to you. And of course, if you take more than you can handle, you'll probably die."

"But it will never be entirely closed."

Sasuke shrugged, and gave her a long unimpressed look. "It's a matter of strength of will."

Sakura's back stiffened, and she gave Sasuke a furious glare. Naruto had a feeling that the bastard was about to end up in the doghouse. "Is there something you want to say, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke shrugged and leaned back. "I just said it. It's a matter of strength of will. And you shouldn't need inhuman amounts of it. If you want to refuse anyway, alright, it's your choice. We'll just wait for you to find another way."

Sakura's fists slammed on the coffee table and she rose on her knees; Naruto started reaching up to hold her back, but she stopped herself, stiff and radiating barely contained rage.

"You -- son of a _bitch_. Do you think I haven't tried? Do you think it isn't all I think about, in between training and missions and more training? I can't even think properly, I'm exhausted all the time and -- you're blackmailing me with -- with -- you son of a bitch!"

Naruto winced, and crawled over to her side of the table. He didn't remember ever seeing her get this angry with Sasuke -- he didn't remember her getting quite this angry at him, for that matter. "Sakura-chan, he didn't mean --"

"I think that's exactly what he meant!" She speared Sasuke with another glare. "That if I can't do any better, I should shut up -- it's my body, I'll be the one at risk! I'm not at risk enough already?!"

Naruto flinched; he gave Sasuke a nervous look, but Sasuke seemed to be carved into a block of marble.

"I'm sick and tired of this situation! I'm sick and tired of having my whole career messed with, and my life and the child's put at risk -- and then you two go around and just pull a solution out of your asses and pretend it's just perfect, like the risks don't matter -- you're not the ones who'll risk going _crazy_ or _dying_ -- and I'm sick and tired of not even being able to save my own damn self!"

The echo of her final shriek died, swallowed by the old walls. Naruto couldn't think of a single thing to say to fill the silence.

"You -- you just ride into town like heroes and fix everything without asking, and -- it's all so _perfect_ that we're not allowed to criticize _anything_, and -- 'here you are, nothing you did on your own worked, but so what, you're saved, now' -- and that gets on my nerves, alright? It really gets on my nerves."

Naruto opened his mouth, but he didn't know what he wanted to say, so he closed it again. Sakura was turned away from both of them, her shoulders tense, her knuckles white. He wanted to fix it, but she wouldn't want him to, even if he knew how.

"I apologize."

Sasuke's voice was quiet, measured. He was scowling; probably didn't like having to say it. He didn't have much practice, to be frank. Naruto looked back at Sakura; she was still turned away, but there was a curious stillness to her posture that made him hold his breath.

"... Yes, well." She got up, rather stiffly. "I'm going to check out the house. If we're going to live here--" She snapped her jaws closed, walked out without looking at either of them. Naruto slowly sat back down on his sleeping bag, giving Sasuke an alarmed look. Sasuke didn't look back; both elbows on the table, hands in front of his mouth again, he was staring at the scrolls.

"...Sasuke?"

"I'm going to make tea."

And then Naruto was alone in the living room and wondering how everything could have gone so wrong so fast.

Sakura had said she was thinking of living there, right? With them? And she hadn't left. She was just cooling down. And Sasuke -- well.

Well, fuck. He slumped back on his sleeping bag, sprawled, and stared at the ceiling. The proper christening of the house was going to be harder than expected.

Sasuke drifted back ten minutes later, with a kettle and mugs; Naruto lifted his head from the floor and watched him set them on the table in silence, and let his head fall again when Sasuke sat and started sipping quietly. Sakura was away for a half-hour at least; they could hear a few thumps and scrapes as she, presumably, moved furniture around and forced open a few windows upstairs. Naruto closed his eyes and listened, trying to guess what every sound meant; some were pretty indefinable. Eventually, the noises died down; and a few minutes after a large appliance had crashed into the couch, out in the garden, she was walking down the stairs and back to the living room.

"There's so much dust upstairs. The windows should be open when we clean it off, or we're going to suffocate."

Naruto grinned and sprang into a sitting position. "Yeah, you should have seen what the living room looked like. It was like walking in snow!"

"Oh, ew, gray fluffy snow."

Sakura's tone was still a little tense, but Naruto beamed back anyway.

Sasuke wasn't looking at her; he was pouring another mug of tea. Still silent, he picked it up and placed it in front of her, and then he looked up. They stared at each other for a while; finally, Sakura closed her eyes and her strained expression softened.

"...How do you plan on filtering out the Kyuubi's influence?"

Sasuke opened another scroll, showing her diagrams that looked like snowflakes, and lines and lines of calculations.

"Mmh. What's that variable?"

"Demonic chakra doesn't react entirely like human chakra. There's always a variable. I don't think it can be erased."

"It's not a perfect solution, Sakura-chan," Naruto intervened. "There's always going to be a risk where the furball is concerned. He could be lying to me, his chakra could be impossible to use for anyone who wasn't born with it -- perhaps we can't convert it and it will burn you like it burned Sasuke that time I tried to heal him. Perhaps it will affect the kid and then we'll end up with a kitsune child." He looked up at her, the poor little smile he had been holding onto dissipating. "Perhaps you'll die. And we can't tell you to risk it instead of continuing to trust in the old hag. Maybe she'll find something -- or your body will adapt, or the drain will slow down and then our idea will be useless. I don't have a clue."

Sakura stared down into her cup, and then delicately lifted it to take a sip, a distant look in her eyes. "So in the end, it's all left to chance."

"But there are still probabilities," Sasuke countered. "And if we work on this idea, get rid of as many variables as possible, perhaps we can reduce the probabilities to a more acceptable level."

Sakura didn't move for a long moment, staring down into her cup; and then she nodded. "Alright. Alright, I'll work on it. It still isn't a yes!" she warned them sternly. Naruto just beamed back. If she ended up saying no, it would be because there was a problem that just couldn't be worked out. But at least they were doing something.

Well. Sasuke and Sakura were doing something.

At first, Naruto contributed a few words here and there, and watched their diagrams with confused fascination. Eventually, though, they drifted into arcane calculations and secondary and tertiary meanings of the twelve hand seals and elemental resonance and whatnot, and he was reduced to crossing his arms on the table and letting their voices wash over him, since he didn't have a clue what they were on about.

He didn't even realize he had dozed off; he just noticed when he woke up, slumped uncomfortably against the table, and found them still debating quietly at the light of an old oil lamp. Sakura had a scroll of her own to write her notations, and it was already halfway full. Naruto didn't have a great sense of time, but it must have been after two AM at the very least.

"That's not possible -- oh, damn it, I lost the thread again. How far did you get?"

"... I got a different result this time." Sasuke glared at his paper and pencil, as if they had betrayed him. Sakura gave a tired giggle.

Naruto sat up, stretched his arms over his head, and then reached out quickly and stole both scrolls. "Time's up! You're going to bed now."

"Naruto! I was just -- you can't do that, I was writing!"

"No, you weren't, you were crossing out stuff. Just let it rest and try again tomorrow, you -- whoops! Missed," he exclaimed as he dodged Sasuke's sudden lunge.

"Naruto..." Sasuke growled.

Naruto hid the scrolls behind his back. "Nope. Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei both say that when people are tired, they make stupid mistakes. You two are making stupid mistakes, and we've got to be up at seven AM on top of that. Kakashi's going to destroy you two if you come and train without having slept."

Sasuke and Sakura exchanged annoyed looks, but eventually, they capitulated.

"Fine, fine. Give me back my scroll, I want to jot down a few ideas," Sakura demanded. Naruto gave her a suspicious look. "Just a few tracks to explore later!"

Sasuke snatched the scrolls from Naruto's hand. "And in the meantime, you can make the bed."

Snorting, Naruto went to get the blankets they'd brought back from the apartment, and then unfolded them in a dry corner, piling them up to cushion the floor a little. At least they wouldn't get cold; it was wood, not stone.

... It was too bad that the sleeping bags were way too narrow for two people, much less three.

Then again, if he unzipped them all the way... Grinning, he spread his own over the blankets to make the bed less scratchy.

"What are you doing?"

"Making the bed," he replied, sticking out his tongue. "And gimme your sleeping bags; I'll zip 'em together to make a big blanket."

Sasuke was giving the blankets an unconvinced look. "The one who's going to be in the middle better not need to get up too fast during the night," he groused; he meant he wanted one of the sides for easy escape.

Naruto looked at Sakura. "You wanna be in the middle?"

"Um."

Okay, what had he said that would make her blush?

"Sakura-chan? I figured..."

She rolled her scrolls and aligned them in a corner of the coffee table, and gave Sasuke a quick, disappointed look. "Um, I'd love to, but... Sometimes I do need to get up fast in the morning, and well, I don't want to pull the blanket out with me."

Sasuke frowned. "You still get morning sickness?"

"...Yes, that too."

"Aha! Need to pee?" Naruto dodged a flying pen and snickered at her. "Okay, okay -- oh hey, that means I get to be in the middle? Awesome!"

Sasuke gave him a long, suspicious look. He must have been even more tired than Naruto thought, because he didn't say anything. To be frank, Naruto was still a little groggy from waking up from his too-short nap himself. Not enough to keep the glee down. He went to put the pen back on the table, then dug through his pack to find his pajamas. The nightcap had suffered an irreparable tear during a joint mission with Kiba, that rat bastard. ...and if he slept between the two of them, he would probably be warm enough to forego the top. Hohoho.

He couldn't help but laugh as Sakura eep-ed and retreated to the corridor when he started to strip. "Aw, come on, you've seen me naked before."

"Oh, shut up!"

Still chuckling, Naruto yanked on his pajama pants. By the table, Sasuke was pulling off his collared shirt and shorts; he folded them before looking in his pack. So anal-retentive. Naruto was kind of disappointed when the boxers stayed on, and a tank top made its appearance. Well, at least it showed some shoulders.

"Do you even own _one_ top that isn't blue?" he nagged, chuckling a little.

"Do you own anything that isn't orange?"

"Lemme think... I've got green briefs... Oh, Sakura-chan, you can come back." He turned to look toward the corridor -- and found her standing there, blushing just a little. "Sakura-chan! Don't tell me you were _peeping_!"

"I wasn't!"

"You're blushing!"

"I wasn't peeping," she repeated as she stomped in the living room. "It's just kind of ... hitting me. You know... Going to bed, with... um."

Sasuke sat down on the outer side of the bed, put the oil lamp down on the floor within arm's reach, and looked up at her. He didn't say anything; he just waited. She was frozen there in the middle of the room. Naruto gave her his hand, which she took without looking at him, and led her to their corner.

They sat in a circle, giving each other little looks.

"It's... Kind of weird, isn't it."

"But not a bad weird, right?"

"No, no. Just a -- a 'I've known them forever and now we're sharing a bed' weird. And I know we've done that before, but this time it's different. It's -- it's deliberate. Do you understand?"

Naruto scratched his head. He thought so, but he also thought that she was thinking too much once again.

"We'll get used to it, I guess," Sasuke commented prosaically, and lifted the improvised blanket.

Naruto grinned. Yeah, they would.

There was some awkwardness as they took their places; his ankle bumped into Sasuke's, Sakura kept shifting at his side, and the blanket was just large enough, provided none of them moved around too much. Not that he cared; he was in the middle. But the discreet tug of war over him was distracting. He looked at Sasuke -- who was turning his back on them, of course -- and then at Sakura. She gave him a guilty look.

"Uncomfortable?"

"...No pillow."

Naruto offered his arm; and was surprised when she took it, curling up against his side shyly, her head on his shoulder. He hugged her tight, nuzzling her hair.

"...'night Sakura-chan."

"Goodnight, Naruto," she whispered back. "Goodnight, Sasuke-kun."

"Yeah, 'night, bastard."

Sasuke doused the light and lay back down, his back still to them. "Goodnight. Now sleep."

Naruto snorted quietly, and ran his fingers up Sasuke's spine. Sasuke jerked briefly and kicked back at Naruto's leg. "Don't even start."

"Aw, come on, I'd sleep better after a quickie."

Sakura gasped on a shocked giggle. "Naruto!"

"If it's too late to stay up, doesn't it follow that it's too late for sex?" Sasuke grumbled tiredly.

"Yes, you were the one who nagged us into getting some sleep," Sakura added as she poked Naruto in the side.

"No spontaneity," Naruto whined. "I'm gonna die of blue balls one of these days, mark my words. And then you'll cry and say 'Oh, if only we had known, we would have given him a handjob or two,' but it will be TOO LATE."

He would have continued his tirade, but Sakura's hand slid over his stomach, soft, light, and he gasped.

And then she pinched him.

"Ow!"

"Sleep. Pervert."

He would have protested, but then she kissed his jaw, so he shut up.

"Goodnight."

"G'night."

"We aren't going to start again, are we? Just sleep already."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"Fuck you."

Sakura chuckled softly. "Love you, too."

"... Yeah," Naruto replied softly.

Sasuke didn't say anything, which was telling enough.

* * *

Naruto woke up to Sakura squirming out of his arms. Grumbling sleepily, he tried to hold her back. "Nuhh..."

"Naruto, I'm going to throw up on you."

"Eep."

Naruto freed her reluctantly, and turned onto his other side, hoping against all probabilities that Sasuke, at least, would still be there. Fat chance. Opening his eyes, he saw the Uchiha checking on them from the kitchen as Sakura hurried out, then he disappeared again. Sasuke was already dressed; once he got his tea, he would be ready to go. Well, damn. There went Naruto's plan to christen the house properly. It would be time to go soon; Naruto wouldn't have minded being late for such a worthy cause, especially since Kakashi was always late for a lot of non-reasons, but he was pretty sure they were going to disagree.

He sat up in the bed and watched as Sakura came back, buzzed around to organize her scrolls, disappeared in the kitchen for some tea, picked up clean clothes, and disappeared into the corridor again. He just had to wonder how she could look so efficient when her skin was still kind of pale greenish and her eyes were shadowed. Habit, maybe.

"Hurry up, Naruto, or we'll leave without you!" she called back.

He sighed, and changed right in the middle of the living room. And if he took a little more time than strictly necessary to look for his clean boxers when the old ones were already off, well then, they had asked for it.

Should have asked for it. Whatever.

At least Sasuke didn't throw stuff at his head again, but neither did he give Naruto and his bare butt more than a quick, exasperated look.

_'I shacked up with two prudes,'_ Naruto admitted resignedly.

It was a little weird to be leaving the walls of the Uchiha compound, instead of Sasuke's old apartment. The streets were so quiet and creepy, and Sasuke was stomping onwards, with his head held high and staring right ahead, as if he was leading the way for a military parade and wasn't allowed to break proper decorum. Sakura and Naruto exchanged worried looks; but if they just up and said that maybe they should live elsewhere, Sasuke would get pissed and dig his heels in just to be contrary. At least once they were out of the district and back to more normal streets, he allowed Sakura and Naruto to catch up.

They arrived on time; Kakashi didn't, of course. Naruto wanted to make-out a bit in the meantime; they chose to discuss more seal stuff. Blah. He listened anyway -- even if he couldn't add anything, just in case -- but he only gained a few random fragments like "Akariku's Principle" or "mirrored equilateral formations" and a headache.

They went through more quick D-rank missions used as background for tedious drills. At least neither of his teammates could start talking about The Big Plan again, not with Kakashi-sensei around; still, the boredom just about killed him, especially compounded with the many tiny hints that Sakura wasn't as alright as she pretended to be. There wasn't much they could do to help her overcome exhaustion except carrying her or otherwise doing it for her -- and that was rather counterproductive. He'd gotten used to ignoring it, though. By now seeing her hands shake was business as usual and Sakura got mopey when they worried too much.

The only highlight of the day was when, on a whim, Kakashi decided to show them the hand seals for a basic Suiton jutsu. On their first try, Naruto produced a few drops of water, Sakura a squirt; Sasuke tried several times with mounting annoyance, but never got anything but steam. Kakashi shook his head and chuckled.

Sakura tried to comfort Sasuke by telling him that he was already a master of fire and that water was boring anyway, and she was only that good because she already knew another Suiton jutsu.

She offered no explanations on Naruto's result. Sasuke wouldn't have been listening even if Naruto hadn't been laughing at him loud enough to cover her voice.

They got a full-out brawl out of it, and when Sakura demanded that Kakashi do something, he started giving them pointers.

Still. Boring. Naruto couldn't wait to actually do something, but he was going to be useless until the time came to actually implement the plan. Maybe, once he was done putting back the stolen scrolls and book this afternoon, he should go and find Kiba, Neji, or Lee for a spar. Or hell, all three.

They broke up around three PM; Kakashi had, once again, better things to do with his time -- if the things were "stay home and freak out sneaky students", Naruto would... he didn't know what he would do, but he'd be annoyed.

They walked Sakura to the Hokage Tower, and then Sasuke left to settle more Uchiha business stuff with the bank and clan registry that Naruto didn't ask about. Naruto went back to the house in which they were camping, picked up the scrolls, and trekked back to the tower, muttering all the while about the stupid people who had chosen to build their district at the ass-end of Konoha.

He knew that Sakura and Tsunade would be at the hospital, so he just made his way upstairs, waving at the guards and whistling all the while. He didn't even bother knocking before he reached for the handle.

"If you're looking for Tsunade, she isn't here," a deep masculine voice bellowed cheerfully in his ear.

Naruto eeped and whirled around. Jiraiya was looming over him, with a genial smile on his face and an evil glint in his eyes.

"Pervert-sennin!" Ack! Caught in the act! Wait, no, he had no way of knowing what Naruto was doing. Yeah. "Get a kick out of startling people?"

"Oho, so I startled you? Maybe you need remedial stealth training."

"In your dreams, perhaps," Naruto grumbled, crossing his arms defensively. Jiraiya herded him toward the end of the corridor, and Naruto didn't have any choice but to follow reluctantly. "What do you want? ...You don't have another trip planned anytime soon, right?" he added suddenly, worried. Cool techniques or not, it really wasn't the right time to go on a field trip with the old man.

"Nah. Why?"

Naruto relaxed. "Oh, no reason, just got some stuff planned."

"_Stuff_, eh?"

Well, it was Jiraiya who had taught Naruto that hiding the truth was easier if you actually told the truth. Or part of it. And let them assume whatever they wanted. "Yeah. With my girlfriend," he added with a huge grin. The grin was sincere -- he always got a kick out of thinking of Sakura as his girlfriend, and this was the first time he said the term out loud in front of another person. It felt like a milestone, even if Jiraiya already knew.

"Ooh? Sounds like fun."

The old pervert waggled his eyebrows; Naruto made a face at him. "Don't you have anything better to perv about?"

"Perv! _Perv_, he says. I am doing something infinitely better than _perving_." Jiraiya drew himself up proudly. "I'm drafting up my next epic."

Naruto snorted. "The _boy_friend will be there, too."

Calling Sasuke his boyfriend definitely felt weirder than calling Sakura-chan his girlfriend. But it was all repaid when Jiraiya twitched.

"_Boy_friend. Booyfrieend... Like a boy. To make out with. Still inspired?"

"...You just ruined a masterpiece, brat."

Naruto snickered, even as Jiraiya cuffed him.

"Kinda gross to be writing about your students anyway, isn't it."

"Bah! Who would want to read about YOU? The situation has potential, that's all. It would certainly be an original twist in a romance story."

Jiraiya had herded him to the empty meeting room at the end of the corridor as they talked; they leaned side by side against the windowsill.

"Romance, hah. You write smut, old man."

"Well, of course! What better way to celebrate the passion of two hearts -- or three -- finally coming together?"

Naruto grinned. "And now you sound like Gai-sensei."

He got another slap to the head for his troubles.

"So disrespectful."

They watched the plaza underneath, the streets of Konoha stretching and sprawling up to the forest.

"...You will be taking the proper precautions for your escapade, I hope," Jiraiya eventually commented, watching him from the corner of his eye.

"It's not like we could knock up Sakura-chan again, you know," Naruto retorted without thinking.

There was a flash of pained amusement in Jiraiya's eyes. What had Naruto gotten wrong now? ... Oh. OH. _Those _kinds of precautions. Well, damn, did the old pervert really know everything or what?

_/Didn't think you could fool an old fox, did you,/_ Kyuubi rumbled mockingly. Naruto grumbled his annoyance under his breath, at the old man and at the demon fox both. Since when did Kyuubi approve of anyone he knew anyway?

"... Yeah, we're taking all the precautions we know."

"Well, that's a step in the right direction." Jiraiya turned back to watch the city, appearing to lose interest in the conversation. Naruto knew better now.

Well then. If the old pervert had guessed what was truly going on...

"Hey, old man..."

"I told you already, don't call me that. What do you want, brat?"

"Well, I--"

_/Leave false tracks./_

Naruto closed his mouth, startled at the active interest the fox was taking in the situation. Kyuubi hadn't offered more than a few offhanded comments at random since the fire; it felt... weird to have him so close to the surface, so awake and aware. A little crowded in his head, as if they ran the risk of blurring at the edges if they didn't watch what belonged to who. Naruto didn't push him back down, even though he knew he would probably end up feeling the repercussions in the next few days.

_'Why? He already knows.'_

_/Not all your watchdogs are as pitiful at stalking as you are./_

_'I'm not pitiful!'_ Naruto protested; and then he paused. He hadn't noticed spies any time today... _'-- did you... notice anything?'_

Kyuubi growled in annoyance. _/With what? My nonexistent ears? The eyes you refuse to turn in the right direction? Stupid brat./_

Naruto pouted. Like he could just guess what Kyuubi could or couldn't see, when half the time he barely noticed the furball existed. _'Why do you care anyway?'_

_/Do you WANT to be stopped now?/_

... Well, no, he didn't. So fine! Fine. Stupid fox could stay, and too bad if Naruto ended up sleepwalking again. Now how to make Jiraiya understand what Naruto was on about, while still making potential spies understand something else entirely...

"Naruto?" Jiraiya was peering at him.

"Ah -- uh, sorry. We still don't know what they want with guys like me, do we? Those guys with the weird cloaks."

"We have a couple of guesses," Jiraiya replied, arching an eyebrow at him.

Okay. Okay, he could do it. Now if there were spies, they would assume he was asking because he was worried about Akatsuki. Which was classified info, but hey, he was the main person concerned there. He just had to keep it... what was the word again? Ambiguous. "Think they want... Well, you know how my chakra is?"

Jiraiya hummed, but seemed to take a perverse delight in waiting to see how Naruto was going to end the sentence if Jiraiya didn't finish it for him. Naruto gave him a disgruntled glare.

"You see what I mean, old man. Do you think they might want to... To tap into it or something?"

"It's a possibility," Jiraiya commented noncommittally. "At first glance, it looks likely."

Naruto fell silent, hoping that he looked thoughtful, and not like he was trying to pinpoint eventual spies. As far as he could tell, there was no one at the window next to or over them, and the corridor was empty. He couldn't detect anyone, and if there were bugs in the room, they were well-hidden, but surely Jiraiya would stop him if he said something incriminating.

Unless Jiraiya really didn't know anything and was pretending his ass off to trick Naruto into telling him, which was a strong possibility.

Bah. He had laid enough of a false trail with the Akatsuki thing. Hopefully they would think him too simple for a two-layered misdirection.

"Say, hypothetically, what would happen if someone set up a direct pipeline from my chakra to theirs?"

Jiraiya chuckled wryly and shook his head in open amusement. His eyes were wary. "Depends on if the link is direct or filtered."

Naruto frowned. "Well, if it wasn't filtered, they'd just burn their coils -- I mean, that's what happened with Sasuke, and it was just a little bit of chakra."

Jiraiya nodded in approval. "Indeed. But sadly, they're smarter than that."

"So what would happen with filters?"

"Depends on the type... Perhaps a power boost. Possibly a crater."

Naruto winced. "Eurgh. Craters are bad."

"It all depends on how smoothly the flow is drawn out; they would need to control the output and the power surges very carefully."

Jiraiya picked up a piece of chalk and idly started tracing lines on the blackboard.

"With a structure like this, you'd be more likely to survive it, and it also would give us more time to rescue you -- and if you add this here, it gives you -- the victim -- a little more control on the flow, so in case the... guys in the weird cloaks give you some slack, you can slow down the process yourself. It would still be a hell of a strain on both you and the receiver, but then they're not S-class for nothing."

Naruto winced. Sakura was very much not S-class. None of them were. "... But what if they, err. Wanted to be on the safe side? And looked for a way to echo the, you know, the healing thinger I do?"

Jiraiya added a few scribbles. "Then it should look somewhat like that; if you disrupt this, it will backfire rather spectacularly."

Naruto took note. No disrupting the kinda angular coiled ram-horn pattern inside that triangle. Absolutely not.

...What did it look like again?

"...But in this case," Jiraiya continued, "there would be problems with... _personality _contamination."

Personality what? ...Oh. Possession. Naruto remembered that objection from Sasuke and Sakura's conversation. "There's no filters for that?"

"Hm, depends on the type, of course. Filters in this --" quick sketch-- "structure seem counterintuitive, on account of--" Jiraiya pointed out little details "-- these, but they would regulate the wild fluctuations better, and keep only the -- let's say brainwaves -- that echo the target's waves. The two sets of brainwaves might echo off each other for a while, leading to mood swings, but then there wouldn't be anything new that wasn't there before in the target's personality."

Naruto cringed. "Err. Alright." He hadn't gotten any of that. And could the diagram be any more complicated? He would never remember it all.

_/I will./_

Naruto swallowed. _'...Tell me why I should trust you to help Sakura not get possessed by you.'_ He knew that technically Kyuubi couldn't leave him, but apparently, kitsune didn't really _need _to move to their next victim to exercise an influence on their minds.

_/Feh! She's weak. Why would I want her?/_

Naruto growled a little. It sounded dismissive enough to be the truth, and that was reassuring, but still. _'Don't talk about her like that.'_

Jiraiya was staring at him.

"Ah -- sorry, I got a bit... Distracted." Naruto tried smiling, and realized that his canines had grown.

"Naruto--"

"It's alright. I just -- I'm not gonna remember all that," he admitted, shrugging; he hoped Jiraiya wouldn't ask.

Jiraiya didn't; he just gave him a last narrow-eyed look, and then he sighed and leaned back against the windowsill. "Well then, you will just have to do what everyone does when they wish to educate themselves, and go to the library."

"But I already did! And there was nothing that helped enough on that stuff, even in the restri-- er. The specialized section."

Jiraiya sighed. Loudly.

"Hopeless. Subtle as a brick," Naruto heard him mutter under his breath. "Did you check this side of the library?"

Naruto looked out of the window toward where Jiraiya was pointing, and stared in confusion. The East side was for agriculture and carpentry and things like that. "Er, old man..."

"Who knows, maybe the Breeding and Pest Control section will have books pertaining to your... vermin problem."

Vermin, huh. Naruto didn't know if he was feeling amused respect, or offended annoyance more. Perhaps both. If he got the chance, he would kill Jiraiya cleanly; the old man deserved that much.

... Kyuubi. Kyuubi didn't know. Not Naruto. Fuck. Naruto closed his eyes, and shoved the startled, bristling demon fox away; it hurt, they were too entangled to separate that fast. But he didn't want Kyuubi's stray thoughts in his head. The fox's deliberate comments were unnerving enough.

... Library. Pest control section. Alright. "I'll go and check."

"Be sure to do that. We wouldn't want said pest to run free around Konoha, now would we."

... Ack. His blooming headache didn't help his thought process much; but the comment was blatant enough that Naruto couldn't miss that Jiraiya wasn't bothering to pretend they were still talking about Akatsuki anymore. Oops. His little 'restricted -- er, I mean specialized' quip was probably too obvious to allow for even a second of misinterpretation.

Well, um. At least it probably meant no one was listening, or else Jiraiya would have looked more than slightly annoyed. Right? Right.

God, his head hurt, and there was too much light. He squinted, grinned sheepishly at Jiraiya; this time he made sure to keep his lips sealed.

"Any other advice, old man?"

Jiraiya gave him a serious look. "The Uchiha district already has protective barriers ready to go all around its walls; they would take some time and determination to breach. From the inside, or from the outside._ Use _them."

Naruto nodded, subdued. Not being interrupted without warning was good. Making sure that the villagers were safe was better. Breaching the barrier would take some time, time enough for Tsunade and the ANBU to get there, perhaps time enough to evacuate. Better than doing it in the forest; distance wouldn't help much, Kyuubi was more than vindictive enough to trek through a few countries to get back to Konoha.

They stood there, by the window; and then Jiraiya reached out and ruffled Naruto's hair, hard enough to make Naruto's head move with it.

"Ow! Leave my hair alone, old man!"

"You should get going now, you cheeky brat. Oh -- don't forget: banzai!"

Naruto folded in two over Jiraiya's hand, breath knocked out of him. Wheezing, he glared up at the old man and stepped back, rubbing his stomach. "What the hell did you do that for?!"

Jiraiya laughed. "No reason, just for old times' sake. Everything works better if you're relaxed! Especially the mixing of chakra. And I hear Tsunade coming back..."

Naruto whirled around and listened. Oh, damn. Heels stomping in the corridor. He was going to have a hard time replacing the scroll without her noticing; he'd already been lucky the first time. He turned back to face Jiraiya, who was leaning against the windowsill once again. "I gotta go, the old hag wants me to clean her office--"

Jiraiya looked amused. "How convenient."

"-- and she's gonna bitch if I'm not even started... er. Yeah, I guess." Naruto squirmed guiltily.

"Perhaps you're not entirely hopeless," Jiraiya commented as he turned to face him.

Naruto started smiling awkwardly, flattered.

"... Or perhaps you just got lucky." Jiraiya was holding a blue and white book, one Naruto had been damn sure was safely tucked away in his jacket. Naruto felt his pocket; the green scroll was still there, but his zipper was open. Argh! Stupid banzai trick.

"Get going, and don't forget to go to the library when you're done here. I'll give this back to Kakashi."

Oh, _damn _it. Was there anything, anything at all the old pervert didn't know? ... Kakashi probably knew, too. Hell, he'd probably told the old pervert about the missing book in the first place. Bunch of sneaky, meddling bastards.

It was a good thing they were on Team Seven's side.

Naruto sighed, chuckled despite himself, and waved jauntily at Jiraiya as he walked out of the meeting room.

* * *

Setting up the seal, in Naruto's humble opinion, should have trumped cleaning the house a hundred times over.

Apparently the first was an excellent reason to get the second done.

"I don't understand why I've got to clean up both bedrooms upstairs!" Naruto groused as he stomped back down the staircase with a bucket full of dirty water in hand.

Sakura looked up from her scrolls and sighed at him. "Because there's a layer of dust we could use as a mattress in there."

"It's not that bad, really." Naruto opened a window, leaned out to check that Sasuke wasn't anywhere in sight this time, and dumped the contents of the bucket on the wilted flowerbeds underneath. "And beside we're not even using them. I mean, I wouldn't mind if it was going to be our bedroom, but they're barely big enough to fit two people and even then, the people will have to be real friendly, if you catch my drift."

"Since when do you mind that?" Sakura replied with a chuckle and a roll of her eyes.

"Well, I don't, but sometimes I like to sprawl all over the place. And what are we gonna do in summer? We'll roast alive."

"We could put futons on the gallery," she suggested, wistful. "I've heard that people with traditional houses do that."

"Bah. Sasuke won't. This gallery's turned toward the street. We'll be too exposed."

Sakura sighed. "Mmn."

"Yeah," Naruto commiserated, even though he didn't know what was so special about sleeping in the gallery.

"Yeah... Are you done cleaning yet?"

Naruto grimaced, and waved the empty bucket around in annoyance. "I thought we agreed that it was useless! And boring! But especially useless. We're not gonna sleep there, and we're going to do the seal thing in the dojo anyway."

Sakura glowered at him. "Well it needs to be done anyway, doesn't it? I'm not going to live in a house where there are doors you never open for fear of being eaten by a mutated dust bunny."

"Or buried alive under a landslide of broken things?" Naruto continued, chuckling.

"Or poisoned by a ramen packet that someone stacked in a damp corner."

Naruto stuck out his tongue at Sasuke, who was leaning against the door to the corridor and watching them. "It's not my fault it's damp everywhere in the kitchen."

"It's not like it's going to stay there long enough to get moldy anyway," Sakura commented with a little laugh. "Did you need something, Sasuke?"

"Hm. Know where I can find a stepladder?"

Naruto scoffed. He wasn't giving up his. "Hey, you're a ninja, be creative."

"I don't feel like being creative with a bucket of paint in hand and my feet stuck to a rotting ceiling."

"... Man. The ceiling's rotting too?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Probably. I'm not about to test it out." He pushed off from the wall and stepped onto the first step of the staircase.

Naruto yelped a protest. "Hey! You're not taking my ladder!"

"Ah! So you DO have one!" Sakura pointed at him, accusing.

"... Well... Yeah. But I'm using it, damn it."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and started walking up the stairs again. "You're a ninja, be creative."

"Asshole!"

"The bedroom ceilings are a lot lower than the dojo's. You don't need it. I do."

Naruto huffed and crossed his arms on his chest, glaring death at Sasuke's retreating back. Sakura giggled into her hand; he pouted at her. "Mean."

"Don't be a baby, Naruto." Sakura rolled her scroll, stashed it to the side, picked up a sheet of paper covered in scribbles, and got up.

"What's that?"

"Oh, just containment seals to apply on the walls. They're not really necessary, but better safe than sorry, right?"

Naruto's smile softened a bit. No chance was too insignificant to bother with, huh. "You just want an excuse to have a romantic moment with Sasuke again."

She startled, freezing in her tracks. "What? I didn't --"

Oh, hell, now she looked guilty. Stupid! "Uh huh. And all those study dates were platonic, eh?" he asked, leaning closer and nudging her in the ribs knowingly. "You, him... A shiny scroll full of weird techniques..."

Now she was pouting. Naruto's grin widened.

"Aha! So nothing's ever happened? Oh, man, he sucks. Poor Sakura-chan, your other boyfriend is a eunuch. Don't worry, I'll give you all the lovin' you need."

She caught sight of his waggling eyebrows, and burst out in scandalized laughter. "Oh, that's horrible! He's not."

Naruto stared at her dubiously.

"... I'm pretty sure he's not."

"Well, 's good that one of us is sure, then," Naruto grinned.

"That's cruel." She sobered up. "Nothing has ever happened with him -- well, I mean, it was so -- so nice to have an occasion to talk with him like this, you know? So stimulating -- _intellectually_ stimulating," she rectified as she caught Naruto's leer, "and I really do feel like we became a little closer... and it's really nice to know that he has such a high opinion of my intelligence..."

"But no making out."

Sakura reddened, and her shoulders slumped. "... Well... No."

Naruto chuckled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side. "For such a smart girl, you're really silly sometimes."

"Hey! How come?"

"Well if you're waiting on HIM to make the first move, you're gonna die an old maid. No, seriously, I love the bastard to death, but he's frigid like somebody's great-grandmother. He's not just gonna wake up and say 'Oh hey, wanna go on a date'. So next time, you should MAKE it into a date!"

Sakura blinked at him. "Make it...?"

"No, seriously. Start it. Molest him! He secretly loves it -- OW."

Sasuke had just brained him with the stepladder. The Uchiha didn't stop for so little; he kept stomping down the stairs and past the two of them, scowling and refusing to look their way. Naruto rubbed his head and glared at his back.

"Really should get laid more often."

Sakura shook her head, chuckling tiredly. "I should get back to work now. Thank you," she added, with a little smile, and a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth that made him grin goofily and forget his bump.

He watched her follow Sasuke through the door, and then sighed heavily, shook his head, and made his way upstairs.

* * *

The bedroom, as it turned out, had a window. And that window, as it turned out, opened just over an air vent for the dojo.

He didn't notice until he had washed most of the ceiling -- clinging to the walls with his dirty shoes, oops, but that wallpaper was ugly anyway -- and leaned against the open window's edge, as he tried to figure out how to reach the center of the ceiling without leaving muddy footprints on the damp tiles. But there was really no way he could miss Sakura's faintly muffled, but yet perfectly audible, "So... about that date..."

From that moment on, all thoughts of the dirty ring in the middle of the ceiling where henceforth abandoned.

Sadly, for a disappointingly long time, he only heard silence.

"... What?"

_'Sasuke, you fucktard,'_ Naruto thought charitably, _'mess it up and die.'_ Sakura had to be pretty embarrassed at being caught talking about Sasuke behind his back. So, that she would even ask was something. A kinda big something.

"Well, you know... He was teasing, but -- maybe the idea has some merit, don't you think so?"

Sasuke grunted, or maybe he said something, but he was too far from the vent to hear the words. Naruto grumbled under his breath.

Sakura chuckled; her voice echoed a little, as if she were facing away from the wall now. "Somehow I don't see you enjoying an evening at the movies or at the karaoke bar all that much, anyway."

"... Heh. Depends on the movie, I guess." A moment of silence. "Research in tandem isn't much of a date, though," Sasuke added reluctantly.

There were a few scrapping sounds -- preparing the walls for paint, maybe? Sasuke dragging the stolen stepladder around? Naruto couldn't tell.

"You know, I used to think that real dates would be being taken out to outrageously expensive restaurants and showered with roses. And then we would go clubbing. And you would say 'You are the woman of my dreams' or 'I don't know how I lived so long without you by my side' every ten minutes, at least."

She chuckled softly; Naruto bit his lip, and imagined the expression that went with that gentle, amused tone. It made him smile, too; a little ruefully, but tender above all.

"But I don't even like to dance all that much, and I think if you ever say something so horribly sappy to me, I'll have to check for genjutsu. I mean -- it probably would make me... Feel nice, but I know better now -- it wouldn't be natural for you. You're not really the kind to say things like that, and it isn't fair to expect you to be."

Her voice softened, barely a whisper. Naruto had to strain to hear it.

"But whenever you say something, I know it's the truth. And when you know there's something beyond your ability to figure out and you just expect me to figure it out for you -- I wouldn't trade that feeling for anything."

"...Sakura..."

"I mean it, you know. You're really smart, and you just -- you always need to do things on your own, and yet you ask me anyway, like you don't even need to wonder if perhaps I can't figure it out. I just wish you could trust me that much in battle. But I'll train, you'll see. And then -- and then..."

Ack! And then what? Naruto leaned a little more, trying to catch any sound that could clue him in as to what was going on, and ended up sticking to the outside wall desperately as he overbalanced. By the time he managed to scramble back inside the room, there was nothing else to listen to. He didn't have a clue whether they were kissing, or hugging, or ignoring each other in awkward silence. Perhaps they had simply moved away from the vent.

He probably shouldn't spy on them anyway, shouldn't begrudge their moments alone; but sometimes he got worried. The two of them always over-thought everything, and Sasuke could hurt Sakura-chan all too easily -- she always hoped for so much, and he didn't like emotional expectations.

Sometimes Naruto wondered what would happen if Sasuke started to feel for Sakura like Naruto himself did. He would be happy for them, he knew he would; and they would still love him, and need him there to be their friend. But he didn't know if he would still be necessary as anything _but_ their friend. There was the child to think of, true, but Naruto didn't like the idea of using him or her as a guarantee. Naruto should be with Sakura and Sasuke because they loved him, not because it was better for the child. If the kid was his -- well. He could still be a dad and a friend without being shacked up with them.

He would miss them, though, now that he had an idea of what it was like to be with them.

Naruto knew that he was supposed to save as much chakra as he could, just in case, but surely one little Kage Bunshin wouldn't hurt, and they made okay temporary stepladders. He picked up his brush, climbed on his clone's back, and started scrubbing at the dirty ceiling again. If he got done soon enough, maybe he could check on how well they were doing.

* * *

Naruto's quick check revealed them standing side by side in front of the far wall and pointing stuff at each other. The tone of their low voices indicated more seal talk, which made him groan; but Sakura-chan's left hand was cupping Sasuke's right elbow, and when he reached up to fix the curve of the preliminary sketch, he did it with his left hand instead of pulling away. Good boy.

Must be nice to be ambidextrous, Naruto reflected as he returned upstairs. Sasuke didn't use his left hand often outside of battle, but with a little prompting, Naruto was sure there were plenty of uses they could get out of it.

Entertaining himself with dirty thoughts, he went back to work on the next room. He knew that Sakura was tired often, and Sasuke was a frigid bitch, but really, this time! The second they were in the clear, he would jump them both. It had been _way _too long, and wasn't it ridiculous to jerk off so often to fantasies of them both when he could have just reached out and touched? Yes. Yes it was. It was completely ridiculous, and he was done suffering from blue balls night after night. And he wouldn't let them wriggle out of it again!

"Are you trying to clean this table out of existence?"

Naruto blinked down at the table, and then up at Sasuke, who was standing in the doorway with an eyebrow arched. Naruto glared at him; Sasuke blinked slowly, as if he didn't know that he was a cock-teasing bastard-prude.

"So, how was the mini-date?"

Sasuke grimaced briefly. "It wasn't a date at all."

"What, no kisses?" Naruto demanded, aghast.

Sasuke briefly looked embarrassed, and then glared at Naruto. "If a kiss is enough for you to make anything into a date..."

Aha! So they had. "Nah, but it's a good start." Naruto grinned back, and let go of his cleaning rag so he could reach out and pat Sasuke's head in approval. "Good boy."

Sasuke dodged, of course, and slapped his hand away. "Don't start, I'm not in the mood. Come on."

He turned on his heels and stepped away. Naruto made a face, confused. "Going where? Doing what? I thought you didn't need me in the dojo just yet."

"No, outside. I'm going to put up the barrier."

"Oh. Alright." Naruto wiped his hands on the rag and followed him down the stairs. "What do you need me for?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Check the houses, look for intruders."

"... Why would there be intruders?"

Sasuke gave him a sidelong glance as he paused before the front door. "Apart from the two old meddlers? Yesterday you weren't under watch, as far as I know. We don't know if you are today."

Naruto huffed at the reminder. "I wish they'd stop tailing me all over the place at random." Well, really, he wished they would just stop tailing him completely, but if he couldn't have that, it would be nice to KNOW when they were tailing him at least. But then that probably defeated the purpose of putting him under watch.

"You're not going to get that for a while after tonight," Sasuke pointed out cynically, and opened the door.

"Yeah, but hiding a conspiracy's harder. When I sex you up, I'll only need to close the blinds for privacy."

Sasuke twitched and his head whipped around to glare at him. "What?"

Naruto grinned, hands joined behind his head as he started strolling down the street, keeping an eye out for intruders. "Well, I wouldn't want to shock little grandmas with eagle eyes who were innocently doing their laundry at the other end of Konoha, right? They could get a heart attack, or something. It would be a real massacre! All over the village, grandmas falling dead from the shock."

Sasuke growled, a muscle in his jaw jumping. "Sex, sex, and sex. Do you ever think about anything else?"

"Yep. Fighting. Betcha 'bout half of the grandmas would be found with smiles on their lips. That's the way I want to go, I think. Spying on good sex, if I can't kick the bucket by having good sex myself."

"Naruto..."

"Yeah, dying on the battlefield sounds good on paper, but really, death by sex is the way to go."

"_Naruto_. Don't make me kick you in the face."

Naruto laughed at his grouchy tone and faintly twitching eyebrow. "Spoilsport. You know, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were shy. Hell, you'd give Hinata-chan a run for her money. At least, even if she wasn't direct about it, she still asked for what she wanted." He was going to end his tirade with 'and you want sex, repression-boy, but you'd die before asking for it', but Sasuke interrupted him.

"Wait. She asked you out?"

Naruto made a face as the conversation was redirected. He hadn't meant for it to go down that way. "Kinda, yeah."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Really."

Naruto turned away from the building he was surveying to give all his attention to Sasuke. He really hadn't expected that tone from him. "Not _now_! It was at least two years ago. She wasn't even dating Kiba yet."

Sasuke gave a dismissive grunt; Naruto rolled his eyes. Of course Sasuke wouldn't care about Hinata-chan's love life, not even because he knew Naruto did. Sasuke only cared that she didn't ... er. Wait. Sasuke, possessive?

"You were so obsessed with girls back then, it's strange you didn't jump on the occasion."

"Heh. Thought about it, but... no one likes being 'instead of', you know? Hinata-chan would have known I still liked Sakura-chan best." He grinned, suddenly, and nudged Sasuke's side with his elbow. "Besides, I just knew Sakura-chan would notice I'm supposed to be the man of her dreams, eventually. And I was right."

Sasuke arched an eyebrow and regarded him coolly. "Are you?"

Ow. Bastard. He knew Sakura still loved Sasuke best, there was no need to rub it in. "Well, sorta, yeah." A pause; a grin. "One of the men of her dreams, at least."

Sasuke turned away.

Naruto chuckled warmly, and nudged him again. "You know, I think I like it better this way." He didn't have to be 'instead of'; and he didn't have to lose Sasuke either. Infinitely better. "So, how was that kiss?"

Sasuke glared, again. "Exhibitionist, and now voyeur. Why am I not surprised."

"Hey! You make it sound like I'm perverted -- oh wait."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Stop clowning around."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at him, but did as suggested. They had a job to do.

They separated when they reached the wall; Naruto wandered through the compound, looking for intruders, as Sasuke stopped, and touched things, and frowned a lot. Naruto suspected him of not knowing exactly where the trigger tags were situated. Sasuke advanced slowly; Naruto searched in an S pattern so that he would come back to the outer wall regularly, and always ended up close enough that he could strike up another bout of conversation.

Mostly, it was naughty stuff, but Sasuke took to completely ignoring him, and since the only other living things Naruto had found so far were stray cats and rodents, it got a bit boring.

So when, on his next sweep, he noticed that Sasuke was now methodically smearing blood on an old tree, he just had to pause and stare. "What are you doing?"

"Activating," Sasuke replied absently as he shaped a hand seal. "Did you find anyone?"

"Just a mama cat and her kittens. I'm not chasing them off; she'd eat me."

"Hm."

Sasuke really didn't sound all that interested, in either the cats or the conversation. Naruto sighed heavily. Well, maybe if he wouldn't chat about random things, he would talk about the barrier. "So... Does this thing work with anyone's blood, or just an Uchiha's?"

"Just an Uchiha's," Sasuke replied distractedly. A kanji lit up on the bark, gleamed briefly and disappeared; Sasuke leaned back, regarding the spot in silence for a few seconds before he turned away, apparently satisfied.

Sasuke proceeded to the next segment of wall; Naruto went back to his patrol for another loop, dragging his feet a bit. If there really was someone else inside the compound, and they were good, Naruto wasn't about to find them that easily. If they were smart, they'd be following the two of them, or else staked out by the house. Still... perhaps he'd get lucky.

When he came across Sasuke again, Sasuke was smearing more blood onto yet another tree. Naruto tilted his head. "Er. Are they all stuck to trees? Why not the walls?"

Sasuke shrugged. "There are mirroring tags hidden on the walls, but the trees are the ones stocking chakra."

Naruto joined him and peered up at the tree. "Oh. Kinda cool that you don't have to power it yourself, but how the hell does that work? Trees aren't really alive -- or they can't produce chakra at least."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "How do exploding tags explode? They're just paper and ink."

Naruto scratched his head. "... Wait, I knew this. I think."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, again; Naruto kicked at him, and was disgruntled when he dodged.

"As long as they work, why should I remember how they make them? It's not like I could make mine anyway, I'm a field ninja, not a... tag-supplier ninja or something."

Sasuke gave him a look that meant 'Why do I always get dragged into the stupidest conversations with you?' "They're infused with chakra, and then a simple spell is applied to them with special ink. It's the same chakra and ink for any type of tag -- fire, smoke, flash -- but the spell makes the effect different. The trees work on the same basic principle."

"... Duh. So then why doesn't everyone do this? Use trees?"

Sasuke hummed thoughtfully. "I suspect some do -- there must be a reason why Konoha has trees growing everywhere. But it's not as easy as that."

Naruto looked curiously at Sasuke and his sudden, suspicious lack of scowl. These days, it was rare when he didn't sound put-upon when he had to explain something to Naruto. The whole mess didn't improve anyone's mood or patience, and Sasuke already didn't have a lot to spare. Naruto found himself loath to waste this sudden mood shift.

They strolled down the street in companionable silence; Naruto watched Sasuke as he cut his fingertip open with a kunai and did his thing with the next tree. Naruto felt a little at a loss, though; it was just plain weird that Sasuke hadn't yet pointed out that Naruto wasn't doing his part of the job. "If there's anyone out here, I'm not gonna find them," he justified guiltily.

Sasuke nodded, and looked unsurprised. "Of course."

"...Of course?" Naruto made a face. "Hey, why did you ask me to come along if I was gonna be useless?"

Sasuke turned away and started walking again; for a few seconds he didn't answer, and Naruto frowned. What, no snipping back?

The silence didn't feel companionable, so much as ominous, suddenly.

"I put you down as my next of kin."

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks. "... What?"

His back still on Naruto, Sasuke snorted, and his voice turned insultingly slow and deliberate. "If I die, you get my stuff."

Snarling, Naruto jumped forward and grabbed Sasuke's shoulder, forcing him to turn around to face him. "What the _fuck_?! I thought we had the whole seal thing under control -- you and Sakura said it wasn't very dangerous after all!"

Sasuke's face seemed carved in stone. "If we're cautious, and if nothing unexpected happens, it's not dangerous. It's just in case, Naruto."

Naruto grabbed Sasuke's collar with both hands and gave him a shake. "No, not 'just in case'! You're not dying ever, so shut the fuck up! What the hell, we'll just find another way--"

Sasuke snaked an arm under Naruto's and mirrored his hold, tugging him even closer so he could snarl in his face. "It is NOT that dangerous, and I didn't tell you just so you could freak out on me! I don't plan on dying. I _know_ we can make it work, and we're going to. Alright? Shut up."

Naruto tightened his grip, teeth bared. "So why are you telling me this now?"

"Because if I die at some point, and the child isn't mine, I want you to _raze this compound to the ground_. Don't allow anyone to take anything from it. Just raze it. And then sell it, or rebuild a little house for you and Sakura, or whatever. Hell, you can turn it into an amusement park if you want to, for all I care."

Naruto loosened his double hold on Sasuke's collar; he didn't let go, though, because this was probably as close to a bear hug as the bastard would ever let him get. "Damn it, Sasuke..."

The Uchiha looked away, leaned back. "I know some people stole furniture and random crap from people's houses before. It's disgusting, but it doesn't matter. I just don't want the compound to stand here like a ghost town, until the village decides that my corpse is cool enough for them to start looting it for clan secrets."

"Sasuke, you dumb fuck." Naruto reeled him right back in his personal space, leaned even closer, forehead to forehead. And then he smiled, even if the very thought hurt. "Sure. I'll make everything go up in flames. You goddamn pyro asshole."

He didn't let go for a few seconds; just looked into Sasuke's eyes and watched him stare back. He thought about saying something -- 'sure, you rat bastard, anything for you'. Perhaps 'I'll die before I let you check out on me.' Perhaps even 'you're so far under my skin you'll tear me up if you leave now. So don't. Just don't'. Maybe 'I love you', but then again, maybe not quite, he didn't know.

And then, reluctantly, he let go.

"With our luck the kid will be yours, just you wait and see. And I'm not teaching him or her Katon."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed; not seriously, though. "Really."

"Nah, Katon sucks," Naruto retorted as he crossed his hands behind his head and grinned. "I'll teach her Kage Bunshin and Rasengan -- that's way more than enough to get out of anything."

Sasuke rolled his eyes; he was smirking. "One trick-pony."

"Hey, pony yourself! I know way more than one trick."

"You're right. Two-tricks pony."

"You're just jealous, because you've got to remember tons of tiny things that don't even work half the time, but MY techniques are always enough to get out of everything!"

Sasuke's smirk widened slightly. "Except when they aren't."

"Oh, shut up!"

A moment of silence.

"...Pony."

Naruto tried to snap back something, prove Sasuke wrong and win the stupid argument, he really did; but he was laughing too hard for it to come through.

* * *

_/It's time./_

Naruto cast a long look at the Uchiha compound, at the village sprawling behind its gates. The barrier shimmered there, just barely visible in the night sky.

Naruto raked his claws on the tiles idly. _'You in a hurry, furball?'_

_/It would be a waste to come so far for nothing, wouldn't it./_

Naruto chuckled, watching the moon. It peeked over the forest in the distance, perfectly full. _'Still don't understand jack shit to that elemental resonance thing.'_

_/You humans and your science. Laws for everything that dares to exist, everything deconstructed into cold, smooth little blocks of meaning that end up not meaning anything at all./_

Naruto stretched his arms and back, didn't bother straightening up from his crouch; skidded-slunk down the roof, like a cat down a toboggan_. 'You don't know why it works either, do you.'_

_/I know it works. That's enough./_

Naruto caught himself on the gutter before he plunged over the edge, gave the rising moon a last look. _'Better hope it does. Because if it doesn't...'_

He didn't finish his thought; he didn't need to. If the backlash hurt -- killed -- Sasuke and Sakura, Naruto would turn himself in to the ANBU on his own. If Kyuubi was playing him, aiming for a hidden loophole, Naruto would kill himself before the fox went anywhere and then they'd both die.

_/If your bitches haven't messed up, there won't be a backlash./_

_'You're not commenting on the loophole, I see.'_

Naruto felt Kyuubi's muzzle stretch over fangs in a parody of smile -- or perhaps it was his own face; he couldn't tell, they were that close. There was no reply; he hadn't really expected one anyway. He snorted, and rolled over the edge of the roof, landing soundlessly on the gallery below.

The house was dark, the makeshift bed in the living room made with military precision. He wanted to ruffle it, but that could wait, just a little while longer.

The dojo was well-lit; enough so that when he opened the connecting door, he ended up squinting, pupils constricting painfully.

Sakura and Sasuke were standing face to face in a corner; him with ink on his hands and tension in his shoulders, her wrapped up in a light robe as if it was the only thing between her and a snowstorm. They were both doing that not-quite-looking-at-you thing; Naruto stalked closer, intrigued and vaguely frustrated. They better not be once again talking to death everything bad that could ever happen.

"Ah, Naruto." Sakura smiled at him, unconvincingly. And she was so beautiful and so worried and he'd kill to make sure she was alright, because she was _his_. He'd kill to have her smile at him for real, from the heart.

Naruto didn't really want to bother saying anything back; he forced himself anyway, grinning just as unconvincingly. "This wall dry?"

"Um, yes--"

He caught her shoulders when she was still asking 'why?', pushed her back against the inked lines and loops on the wooden wall, and kissed her, hard and hungry. It wasn't all him and he knew it -- they both did, him and the fox -- but it didn't matter. She was his, his to protect and to love, and if he couldn't make her smile true for him, he could make her respond much more truly.

Her startled little yelp made him purr, and her confused moan was all the surrender he needed.

When Sasuke sneered something about how unnecessary it had been to shoulder him out of the way like that, Naruto broke the kiss with Sakura just so he could slam Sasuke against the other wall of the corner and silence him properly. With tongue. And teeth.

This time he didn't expect a surrender, and didn't get it anyway. He liked it better like that.

Then he stepped back, one hand on each wall, corralling them in the corner, and grinned fangily. "No angst now. Forbidden. I'll bite you if you start the 'woe, what if' routine."

Sasuke sneered, unimpressed; Sakura pouted, and pretended that her lips and cheeks weren't still flushed from his kiss. "... You're a pest."

"You're too gloomy. We don't need two Sasukes in the team. So stop it, alright? Or I'll kiss you again."

Sakura laughed, a bit shakily. "Oh no, please, not the kisses, I'll do anything."

Sasuke snorted faintly; Naruto glanced at him, vaguely surprised by his willingness to allow Naruto to box him in. Sasuke didn't say anything, though; he just stared back. He seemed a little annoyed, but Naruto couldn't tell if it was at one or both of his teammates, or at himself, or all three. Naruto didn't smile for him, because Sasuke didn't need it; he needed to know that Naruto was determined to carry their plan through.

"Hey, Naruto... You're..." Sakura trailed off, but her meaning was clear enough, as clear as the way she was staring at his face -- fangs and slit pupils and widened whiskers marks, no doubt.

Naruto shrugged and smiled at her. "Foxy? Yep. It's alright." He stepped back, freeing them. "Okay, let's do it. ...Oh hey, Sakura-chan," he added, leering at her, and her hands, clenched on the edges of her robe, "I didn't realize you needed to get naked. Niiiice."

Sakura recovered enough to glare at him; he grinned back, approving.

"I'm not naked." Huffing, she stepped toward the middle of the dojo, muttering under her breath as her stiff fingers fought with her belt. "I couldn't take a naked ritual seriously, anyway. I would be too embarrassed to do anything but giggle."

Naruto followed, throwing his shirt in a corner and taking his place on the symbol that mirrored hers. "Whaaat? You'd look awesome. Like a priestess of arcane... stuff. Powers beyond man's understanding, and all that bull. What do they call it, skyclad? Yeah, you'd look all kinds of nice, naked under the stars."

She rolled her eyes as she took off the robe, revealing a plain sports bra and her usual black biker shorts. They looked a lot nicer with no skirt to obstruct the view.

"I'm a bit out of date as a virgin sacrifice, you know."

"It's alright," Naruto retorted as he stretched his legs and leaned back on his hands casually. "We can sacrifice Sasuke. He's not a virgin either, but the way he acts, I'm sure no one will be able to tell the difference."

Sasuke scowled at him over the edge of the ink bowl where he was mixing in more of his blood. "Oh, go to hell. You talk like you're a slut, but you don't have any more experience than I do."

Naruto snorted, teeth bared in a hard grin. He didn't remember whether Sasuke had Sakura before or after Naruto took him, but first lover or not, Naruto had been Sasuke's first guy; and knowing the misanthropic bastard like he did, Naruto was pretty sure he'd be Sasuke's last even if Naruto died tomorrow. "Sure I do."

"Porn magazines don't count as experience. If that were the case, every prepubescent brat raiding his parents' closet for a laugh would be a sex guru."

In that light, memories of Kyuubi's sex life probably didn't count either, even if he remembered way too many sounds, scents, and feelings to compare simple photographs to them. He grinned anyway, with even more teeth. "I got a blowjob once. Top that, bitch."

Sasuke just stared at him, the brush he was using to mix the ink coming to a stop. Naruto's fangy grin widened.

"You can't, eh? Ha! I win."

Sasuke started mixing his stuff again. "I'm trying to figure out who would get anywhere close to your dick of their own will, but it's not computing."

Naruto snuck a glance at Sakura. She was sitting in her spot and biting her lip, and didn't seem inclined to say anything. Damn. Naruto had hoped she would interrupt them. He grumbled under his breath, "It was a prostitute, during a trip with Jiraiya."

Sasuke smirked thinly, like he didn't need to add anything to that.

Naruto growled. "Shut up, I still win."

"Um, guys, can we--"

"Like hell you win, you had to pay someone."

"Hey! I didn't ask her, she was the one who started it!"

"Because she could tell you were an easy mark!"

"_Neither _of you wins."

Silence fell in the dojo.

For a little while, at least. "... Uh. What?"

Sakura's cheeks were red, but she didn't back down; if anything, she glared even harder. "Neither of you wins, because I do. There, are you happy? I know I am. I always wanted to win a game of 'Who has the biggest penis'." She didn't need to tack on an 'idiots' at the end; her tone came through clear enough.

Naruto was still trying to decide whether to be jealous, or ruefully amused, when Kyuubi purred out an appreciative laugh. _/And now your pink slut only lacks a set of balls to be manlier than your bitch./_

Sasuke wasn't so amused. "Wait a minute here. You had sex before -- and you never said anything?"

Sakura sighed wearily. "Listen, it isn't that I'm not happy you're jealous--"

Sasuke twitched. "I'm _not_--"

"...But this really isn't anything we have time to debate now. All you need to know is that it wasn't anyone from Konoha, and he really, really doesn't matter anymore, didn't even matter as much as I thought back then, and hasn't mattered at all for _years_. Now can we please _get a move on_ -- preferably before the sun rises? The moon isn't going to wait for us."

Sasuke closed his eyes, and then sighed, deep and slow. Naruto relaxed; Sasuke still didn't look very happy, but apparently the touch of urgency in Sakura's voice had reached him.

"Alright. Later," Sasuke capitulated.

Still on edge, Sakura nodded quickly, hands flitting nervously all over the place. "Yes, yes, afterwards, anything you want to know--"

"The size of his wang?"

"Naruto!"

Naruto grinned. Panic successfully avoided. "Gotta reassure Sasuke that he's bigger, after all."

Sasuke sneered. "I don't have your insecurities, nor your reason to have them."

"Oi--"

This time Sakura didn't need to say anything; her discouraged slump was obvious enough. Naruto sighed in irritation; but he would _/fuck/_ pummel Sasuke into the ground later.

"Okay, yeah, we're done. Let's get started."

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched at that, but only rolled his eyes briefly and didn't retort anything.

Sakura took a deep breath, and lay down on her back, squirming a little to make herself comfortable on the wooden floor, lifted up her hips to roll down the waistband of her shorts -- Naruto expected a flash of pink curls any second now, but she stopped just before that. Sasuke moved from his cross-legged position to a more formal one, kneeling at her side, back ramrod straight, knees slightly apart. Naruto thought of samurais, and vaguely regretted the T-shirt Sasuke was wearing; formal kimono would have suited him better right now.

Sakura folded her arms to keep them out of Sasuke's way and smiled up bravely. "I'm ready."

"Alright," he replied, brushing his fingers against her arm discreetly.

Naruto propped himself up on his elbow, and watched as Sasuke leaned over Sakura and lifted the brush out of its bowl. Thick black ink dripped on her bare stomach; Naruto purred quietly when the tip of the brush dipped into the ink, and started to glide around her navel with deliberate slowness.

Sasuke started with a spiral reminiscent of Naruto's own, following it with lines of symbols that crawled their way down her hips and sides, connecting her to the array on the floor. The wet, glistening trail highlighted the gentle curves of her body. Sasuke's hand was steady, strangely elegant, like the angle of his jaw and neck.

"Naruto." Sasuke's tone was absent; he didn't look at the blond. "You should try to meditate. Make sure your chakra flows properly."

Naruto frowned. It was hard to mix his chakra and watch the scenery. But if they thought it would be better... Grumbling, he gave the tableau a last look and lay down.

On the ceiling, just overhead, there was a quickly penciled doodle of a man, with little schematics of how far apart he should put his feet and where his elbows were allowed to be; it surprised a laugh out of Naruto.

"Hmm?"

"Oh, Sakura-chan, you should be an artist," he teased as he obligingly copied the indicated position.

"What -- oh, that..."

She sounded like she was blushing. Perhaps she would have said more, but Sasuke shushed her; talking made her body move, and he was still painting. Naruto relaxed, contemplating the little fellow. He had a zigzag for hair and actual whiskers that poked out of the sides of his round face.

"Pretty sure my eyes aren't that beady, though."

Sakura stifled a snicker; Sasuke huffed quietly, though he didn't look up. "Naruto... Meditate. You need to be able to control the surge of demonic chakra when we make the connection."

"Yeah, yeah."

He meditated, making himself aware, first of the room -- Sakura and Sasuke's breathing, the soft slide of the brush, the scents inside the dojo, of old sweat and incense and ink, faded presences worn away to a few wisps he might have been imagining -- and then of his body, the slow movement of his lungs and the beat of his heart and the subtle, permanent tension in his muscles -- the way each living cell produced chakra. Slowly, he started channeling that chakra toward his center.

The rasp of clothes and the bare feet padding toward him disturbed his concentration; he opened an eye to see Sasuke leaning over him. "My turn already?"

"Yeah. Shut up and don't move."

Naruto snorted, but the calm from the meditation hadn't entirely left him yet. He closed his eyes again, waiting for the first drop of paint.

It wasn't really cold; but it wasn't warm either. It was kind of thick and a little sticky. But then, what had he expected? It was ink and blood.

Sasuke had lost a little too much blood today, between the paint and the barrier around the district, and Naruto knew that Sakura couldn't use her chakra to fix him. But he would hold on until the end; he was too stubborn not to.

"Put your palms flat on the ground."

Naruto obliged, and felt the brush travel up his chest and then down his arm in quick little flicks. It felt weird, ticklish and wet, and too light a touch to do anything but tease. He grinned anyway, eyes still closed. "Nice view, huh?"

Sasuke snorted. "Delightful. Let me concentrate."

Sasuke was soon finished. Apart from connecting him to the array through his arms, there wasn't much to paint on Naruto; the bulk of it was going to be on Sakura. Naruto tracked Sasuke's progress away from him and to the corner reserved to the spellcaster through sound.

There was a pause, where even Sakura's breathing stopped.

Sasuke broke it first. "... Let's do this."

Naruto chuckled. "Heh. We're waiting on you, bastard."

"This is the stupidest idea we've ever had," Sakura commented from her own corner.

Naruto's smile widened. It hadn't been Sakura's idea at all; but here she was, ready to gamble everything she had on it anyway. It hadn't been Sasuke's idea either, though without him it would have stayed a silly flight of fancy.

He wasn't going to let them down.

He sank into himself, with the sound of their breathing and Sasuke's whispers stretching behind him like a lifeline.

"...Dragon, Snake, Hare, Rooster..."

Sasuke's low voice buzzed in his ears, or perhaps it was the beat of his heart. Slow, but strong; heavy. His chakra ebbed and flowed along with the ancient rhythm, pooling at his center to mix a little red with blue, and then letting it spread along his spine, his legs, his arms, up to the tips of his fingers -- and farther. It was easy, like the tides -- ebb and flow, ebb and flow...

The darkness under his eyelids slowly turned to green. He wasn't surprised. He took a step toward the cage, water sloshing around his ankles. Fiery red bubbled to the surface with each of his steps.

Their steps.

Mirror. Himself, standing behind the bars, at the edge of the endless dark. A blue glow highlighting a spread of deep grooves on his cheeks. Crimson eyes. A wild, reddish-gold mane. His face. His body, beyond which weaved and slithered nine shadows.

_"-- Snake, Ram, Rat --"_

They took a last step and paused, meeting their other's eyes, and for a few seconds weren't sure on which side of the bars they were, or even whether that mattered.

What mattered was the tail -- the power -- as it snaked through the bars, seeped into his skin, mixed with his own life-force. And then it was his to control. And a second tail; and a third. It was heady. It felt so right. A fourth, slower, more reluctant -- and then he reached into the cage and pulled a fifth away from his mirror image. They growled at each other, fangs bared.

_"-- Ox, Dragon, Ox, Tiger --"_

But there was the child.

When the fifth tail passed under his control, the red eyes' pupils turned round and the scarred cheeks smoothed out.

He -- they -- walked away from the cage, and his footfalls rang twice, and two shadows followed on the green walls. A mountain of burnished fur, evil intent and raw chakra lay still behind him, half-swallowed by the darkness.

_"-- Dragon." _Silence. _"__**Naruto**__."_

There was a door now, on the opposite wall from the cage, where there had been none before; a human-sized door covered in scribbles that hurt his eyes when he stared. He opened it, watched the ankle-deep, chakra-infused water of his own cage-room flow, spreading down the new corridor.

There was a gate along the way -- a thick metal grill like one might find in a castle, that wouldn't let a human arm pass, never mind a demon's paw.

Somewhere beyond was his child.

He was at the gate before he even wondered if he should, his double-steps echoing like a stampede in the narrow corridor. But the child -- it had been starved of chakra for so long. Was it still growing normally? Was it weakened -- stunted -- dying?

The gate was heavy in his hands; but not heavy enough, once he used one of his tails to brace himself. He pulled, fangs bared. His child. His, his, _his_. Like hell he would let them make it some sickly little cripple.

He gave a last grunt of effort, the thick, heavy metal bars digging into his hands.

And then triumph -- and tearing, searing pain.

Naruto stumbled alone in the water; and when he threw himself at the falling gate, wisps of red chakra died in his empty hands. The green corridors were ringing with the echoes of Kyuubi's run, and on the walls, his shadow danced, fox and then man and then fox.

"No!" Naruto raged, throwing himself on the barrier. It didn't bulge. He stumbled, fell on one knee; everything hurt and was off-kilter and he couldn't think right -- the baby, the baby -- his mate -- Sakura -- he could think enough. Lifting -- he needed to lift it. Enough, just enough -- he stayed on his knees, and when the gate was at chest-height he wriggled underneath and almost got a foot snapped off and he didn't care, he was hunting.

His baby. His mate. Couldn't let the demon hurt them -- how had he lied to Naruto? They'd been one -- how had he hidden his true intent? How had Naruto missed it?

Up ahead and all around, there was a woman's scream; and somewhere far beyond the green corridors, Sasuke yelled and fell silent.

He ran. He flew.

He arrived too late.

There was a slender figure crumpled in a faraway corner, curled up around a tiny, fluttering light. Pink hair in disarray, spread on the floor. Unmoving. Arrays of raw, white-blue chakra surrounded her -- on the floor, on the walls, in the air itself, like barriers. They felt like Sasuke, like thunder and fire. He knew they would hurt like it without touching them.

Kyuubi crossed them like they didn't exist for him, even though the burns and welts mirrored themselves on Naruto's skin.

_"--Sakura! Breathe__ -- damn it, breathe!--"_

Orange chakra started bubbling up from the spreading puddle on the floor; five tails of fire coiled all around the demon and her. Naruto roared in rage as he rushed forward. Too late, too slow, and Kyuubi was leaning down, and his claws --

"_Who_ the _HELL _do you think you are?!"

Naruto froze in his tracks, his hand smarting where Sakura had slapped aside Kyuubi's paw. And stared. A lot.

Sakura -- his Sakura-chan, miss more-brains-than-brawns, the girl whose waist he could encircle with one arm -- was standing there, back hunched, ready to pounce, and suddenly she seemed ten feet tall. Raw chakra crackled around her like lightning. Behind her, on the floor, was the translucent, ghostly shape of another pink-haired girl, still curled up in a tight ball around a soft glow. What the hell was going on?

Kyuubi's low growl made Naruto forget his confusion. He had to save her first, he could wonder later. He rushed forward, splashing redder and redder water as he went; all around Kyuubi the water boiled over, demon chakra oozing over his body.

Naruto was in the middle of his last leap when a lashing tail caught him under the ribs, sending him flying. The breath was knocked out of him, and then his head rapped sharply against a wall. He fell, dazed, struggled back to his knees as the world danced around him. At the other end of the black void-room, two blurry shapes faced off against each other. The echoes of each hit made the floor shake. Whenever he blinked, the red-burning one seemed to have four paws, and a huge, gaping maw.

It didn't stop Sakura from slugging him right in the muzzle, a heavy punch whose momentum sent Naruto reeling and Kyuubi stumbling back. She seemed utterly furious. Kyuubi had offended her, and now she would make him pay.

Naruto would have been more impressed by her fearlessness if the beast hadn't chosen that moment to start laughing.

"Perhaps he didn't choose so badly."

Sakura sneered, charged, fists swinging.

Kyuubi was human again -- just in time to dodge under her blow, a low, animalistic crouch. Her foot scythed down -- Naruto's head exploded into pain again, and he stumbled. Kyuubi snarled, blocked her follow-up fist; his sudden backhand threw her to the floor, rolling like a puppet with cut strings. Naruto roared in outrage, slammed into his double -- felt the shock resonating up his back, and the echoing pain; he didn't care. How could Kyuubi even think about hurting her? How could he _dare_?

The world tilted, water splashed. He dug his claws into Kyuubi's flesh, his teeth in Kyuubi's shoulders -- or perhaps it was Kyuubi who was biting him -- it hurt the same, fur and then skin and then fur. Caught in the loop, he didn't know who was doing what anymore, but he knew that he wasn't going to let go.

_"--kura! Come on, you can--"_

Chakra was welling up around them, bubbling and spreading; it should have left blisters on their skins. It seeped through instead. All around, the walls of the soul-room started shaking. There was another male voice shouting somewhere far away, but they couldn't make out the words. It didn't matter, anyway.

_"On three--"_

What mattered was fangs in shoulders and claws digging grooves into muscles and vicious kicks and limbs snaking around each other, and tails winding and whipping and melding, and hate rage hate betrayal disgust hate.

And she said, "Three."

The floor exploded. Water rushed back at them, and red bubbles and fire and rage, like a wave -- a tsunami -- and they rolled together, snarling from the shock. How dare she interrupt them when they were trying to protect --

"Out! _Out_! Get the hell out before I _kill you_!"

Chakra surged again; a giant hand -- large as they were tall -- swept the floor, narrowly missed them as they rolled out of the way -- backhanded its way back. Slam. A hard surface broke behind them. They growled, offended and dazed, stumbled back up over the shattered door to pounce out of the corridor.

_"Tiger, Tiger, Ram!"_

The walls of the corridor came to life. Spears and kunai showered them, pits opened under their heels. And inside her soul room, a larger-than-life Sakura stood, water bubbling red around her legs, fists white-knuckled, between the door and the ghost-shape of the other Sakura. They caught a glimpse of the soft, flickering glow she was cradling, and then chains wrapped around their throat, their chest, their limbs, hurling them backwards. They dug their heels in, infuriated, wrapped a tail around the chain to melt it off.

_"Naruto! What the hell are you doing?!"_

He stumbled.

They wanted to return to their child. To make sure it was alright.

But Sakura was already doing that. Guarding it, nurturing it. And the spears kept springing from the walls; he was just a little too slow and one of them dug a furrow in his back. The pain enraged them again.

_"Naruto, damn it, don't make me--"_

(_'I put you down as my next of kin.')_

-- Oh. Right.

If he made Sasuke kill him, the bastard would bitch.

They still wanted to go back to their child, to make sure that it would be safe, that it would be strong. But they'd all done their best and more than that was... bad. He wasn't really sure why it was bad, but She and He wouldn't -- _didn't_ -- like it. That was reason enough.

He gave a last look at the two girls, and the little flame the smaller one was cradling, and then -- he didn't want to go, but he went anyway. He turned away and ran down the corridor, past the traps and the blades and the sloshing, frothing water. The gates slammed closed on his heels; the clanks of deadbolts sliding home echoing under the low ceiling. He was -- they were -- angry still -- his mates had gotten in their way -- but proud also. His way or theirs, the baby would be strong.

The last door closed behind him, leaving him standing inside the green room. He stumbled his way back to the cage, feeling, now, the exhaustion and the wounds. Most had healed over by now, but the soreness stayed. His head swam, and the double shadow looming overhead made him even more dizzy.

He closed his hand on a thick metal bar, and opened his eyes to a wooden ceiling, where the wobbly stick figure grinned at him from under a mess of glowing barrier sigils. His ears were whistling, and the acrid scent of singed hair tickled his nose.

He could hear them breathe -- fast, but not in the peculiar, high-pitched way that betrayed a painful wound. So he breathed with them, and tried to make the world stop spinning.

"... Everyone's alive?" Sakura eventually inquired from where she lay sprawled on the floor.

Sasuke grunted. Naruto carefully pulled his claws out of the gouges in the wooden planks, and added his own "Yeah."

He managed to lift his head off the floor. The glow of the barriers was dimming slowly, letting him see charred lines and loops on the walls where the sigils had been. Panels had splintered. Three of the four high-placed, narrow windows were broken. Sasuke's ink bowl had rolled away from him to crash against the wall; there were broken shards of pottery behind him, and red-black splashes all over the floor just outside the main array -- they'd been lucky none had splashed the patterns.

Sasuke was pale. Already, he was trying to scowl, but it only made his shaken look worse for those who knew how to look.

"What the hell was _that_?" he demanded as he climbed unsteadily on his feet.

Sakura gave an exhausted laugh, flat on her back, and spread her arms as if to stop the floor from swaying. "Don't know. Hurts. We did it!"

Naruto laughed with her. It was over. They were safe. She was going to be alright. He lifted his head just enough to meet her eyes, and they grinned at each other.

"We almost didn't," Sasuke retorted, glaring at the both of them as he made his way to Sakura. "And it wasn't even one of the weak points we were ready for... Where do you hurt?" He fell to one knee at her side, one of his hands by her head, tapped her cheek to get her to open her eyes.

She laughed, again, and brought back one of her arms to hold Sasuke's hand against her face. "Sasuke, calm down. I'm alright. It's over."

He gritted his teeth. "You said it hurt."

"It aches. Kind of burns. It's marvelous."

"It's _what_?"

"It's not a bad pain! It's like -- when you've been running for hours, and -- you know, you hit your stride, and then your legs feel like they might have fallen off and you just haven't noticed yet, but you could run for days and never have to stop. It's like that."

She was grinning, Naruto could hear it. He couldn't see anything but Sasuke's sudden stillness.

"What's up, guys?" Naruto asked cautiously, wondering if perhaps he should sit up or something.

"Hmm?"

Sakura didn't sound concerned. Sasuke spared Naruto a quick, sideway glance, and then reversed his hold, catching Sakura's wrist and lifting it over her head.

She had claws.

She had claws, and neither she, nor Naruto really seemed to be able to do much more than dumbly stare at her hand.

He wondered if, like him, she had trouble seeing the problem. She was alive. They weren't going to have to watch her waste away, bedridden. They weren't going to have to leave her behind.

... So she had claws. So what? Naruto did, too. It looked kinda hot on her, even.

"... Oh."

"_'Oh'_? That's all you have to say?" Sasuke shook his head. "Something's wrong with you."

"No, there isn't," Sakura replied sulkily.

"Yes, there is. You have _claws_. You should be..."

"--I should be freaking out?" Now she sounded irritated. "It's just temporary chakra-induced euphoria and some keratin growth. My hair is probably a little longer and more bristly as well. It's _nothing,_ I'll trim my nails and it will be gone." She sat up, sighed, gave Sasuke a softer look. "I know I'm not much as far as medic-nins go, but I would have to be really horrible to miss such a gross imbalance. It feels weird, but it's not hurting me."

"Unless it's making you euphoric to make you miss the smaller details, like the fact that _it's changing you_."

"It. Can't. Do. That," she growled.

Naruto twitched his nose, and interrupted her before she could add something else. He liked her when she was assertive, and seeing her stand up to Sasuke was always a treat, but not when Sasuke was only riding her ass because he didn't know how else to show he was worried. "Ehh. Sakura-chan, just let him check the seal. If it's done properly it shouldn't allow Kyuubi to change you for good, right?"

Sasuke glared at him, then at her, and then back at him, with a touch of desperation. "She's growling!"

Naruto rolled to his side slowly. The room briefly tried waltzing around him, and then settled down; but everything stayed too bright and detailed. "Yeah, well. The old man told us there would be bleedover."

Sakura made a face. "That's not a word."

Naruto sat up, leaning heavily on his hand. "You understood it, right? That makes it a word. Stop whining and let Sasuke check you out." He grinned suddenly, and waggled his eyebrows. "I know he's had long enough to do it with his eyes, but it's the kind of thing you see better with a... hands-on approach."

Sakura snorted and giggled, and let herself fall back on the floor, arms curved elegantly over her head. Her back arched up from the floor, offering her flat stomach. The seal covering it was no longer ink. Part of her now. Naruto liked the effect.

Sasuke stared at her for a few seconds, and then shook his head and concentrated chakra into his fingers, brushing them along the dark loops and swirls that sprawled on her skin. He started with the point closer to her solar plexus, made his way down every single arch and coil. Black hair framing high cheekbones, dark, slanted eyes, deadly serious -- worried. Naruto liked that, too. Both the face, and the feelings trying to hide behind it.

When Sasuke's fingers reached the point just above Sakura's pubis, she sighed. Naruto smirked a bit, and smirked more when Sasuke paused for a second before forcing himself to continue his check-up.

"So?" Naruto asked, when he managed to tear his eyes away from Sasuke's strong, callused hand on Sakura's belly.

Sasuke gave him a forbidding scowl, as if he could guess what Naruto was thinking -- he probably could, Naruto acknowledged, and tried not to leer -- and lifted his hand away from Sakura's skin. Sakura sighed again, this time disappointedly.

"Lean back. Let me see yours."

Naruto forgot his question as Sasuke crawled over Sakura's legs to get to him and crouched, a foot on each side of his knee. The blond leaned back on his hands, digging his claws into the wood when Sasuke's chakra brushed his skin. His own seal was still black as ink, refusing to fade, but he wasn't going to worry about that yet.

"...The link between you two seems to be dormant. As it should be. And the filters and stopgaps are in place..." Sasuke shook his head, raked a hand through his hair, visibly frustrated. "It still shouldn't have done that," he added, nodding toward the damaged walls and broken windows. "How the hell did he slip through? I thought he couldn't leave you!"

... Oh. Naruto blinked, tore his attention away from Sasuke's legs on both sides of his knee, his warmth so close, and the delicious thoughts of pulling Sasuke closer and making him ride his thigh -- tore his attention away _again_. "He didn't," Naruto replied, when Sasuke rolled back onto the balls of his feet to move away. "I went with him."

Even as languid and relaxed as she was, Sakura's eyes still snapped up to his face in a second. Sasuke's narrowed, threatening, and Naruto wanted to frown back at them for being so serious -- until he remembered what that _meant_.

"... I really did. I went with him." Naruto covered his eyes with his hand and laughed humorlessly. "So stupid. God."

"... So you let him trick you into invading Sakura?"

Sasuke's voice was dangerously soft. Naruto twitched. "I know, okay! I was expecting him to lie to me. And he didn't, he never lied for one second."

Sakura sat up and tilted her head. "So he... asked to see what his kit-incubator could take before bursting into flames, and you thought it sounded nice?"

"No! Goddammit, no." Naruto looked away, disgruntled. Guilt soured pretty girls in bras like nothing else. "He wasn't trying to hurt you; I'd never have let him if he'd even thought about hurting you."

"Hah! If that's his caresses, I don't want to see what his punches are like!"

Naruto wilted. "... You were just in his way."

"So he _was_ trying to get to the child," Sasuke retorted, vindicated.

"He didn't wanna hurt the baby." They were doubting his judgment, Naruto could tell. He bristled. "He wanted to do anything but hurt the baby."

"Because possessing it wouldn't hurt it, maybe?" Sasuke snapped back.

"He didn't wanna possess it! He wanted to make it stronger. So it would survive," Naruto added, and looked away, a hand pressed flat on his stomach. "He really wants the baby to survive."

"... Very badly?" Sasuke asked quietly, thoughtful and displeased.

"You have no idea how badly."

"Badly enough to change Sakura to make sure of that?"

Sakura's claws raked the floor as she gave Sasuke a harried glare. Her hair really was more bristly; it hung slightly past her shoulders, perhaps a little farther than it had yesterday, but the ends looked less like her usual smooth locks and more like she was attempting a pinker, slightly more gravity-prone version of Sasuke's duckbutt. "I told you I'm fine!"

"Eh, as long as Sakura-chan feeds the baby enough chakra, he doesn't care what she looks like. Human, not human, whatever. She could even be a cat or a horse -- hell, she could be an octopus; he doesn't give a shit. As long as the kid is kitsune."

He paused, gave his teammates a somber look.

"And... 's what he was trying to do. Make sure the baby would be one hundred percent kitsune."

There was a muscle twitching in Sasuke's jaw. "And you let him."

"It's not like I knew he would do that! He was just -- he was worried, okay? Like _'it's going to be weak and sickly'_ and _'what if it dies'_ and that's already stuff I was worrying about. So he didn't -- I didn't... think. We just wanted to make sure the kit would be alright." Naruto grimaced. "Just not the same way."

Sakura moved a little closer on hands and knees. "And so you decided to flood me with chakra and try to take over together. What happened exactly? One second I was trying to dam a river and the next I was trying to swim in an ocean."

Naruto blinked at her. Didn't she remember -- the green corridor, and her own featureless inner room, and the two Sakuras? "But you were there," he protested.

"That doesn't mean I had much time to really map out your progress in my coils when I was getting hammered with wave after wave of demonic chakra," she replied tartly.

"... Chakra?"

She tilted her head; Sasuke frowned and placed his palm on Naruto's forehead, fingers catching in his hair, and angled Naruto's face to stare into his eyes. "What's wrong with you, dead-last? Dizzy?"

... She didn't remember the fight in the soul-room? Kyuubi with Naruto's face? The second, see-through Sakura? That was... huh. He opened his mouth to explain, and then closed it again. He didn't want to sound crazy. "Nah, sorry, I was distracted. But hey, he didn't succeed, right? Blocked him before he reached his goal. So everything's alright."

Sasuke didn't seem convinced. Sakura either. Now he had to distract _them_, before they started questioning him. But then Sasuke was still kneeling over his thigh, a hand in Naruto's hair, and Sakura sitting with her legs folded together at her side and shirtless and still absently raking her claws on the floor, so it probably wouldn't be too difficult.

... And then Sasuke sighed, hand falling, and his shoulders slumped a little. "Fine, whatever." He shifted his weight back and to the side, as if wanting to sit on the floor; but it was either between Naruto's knees or against Sakura's side, and, apparently, he needed to think a bit on which would be the most unacceptable.

Naruto was about to make the choice for him; but then he noticed that Sasuke's hand, the one half-hidden behind his leg, wasn't really all that steady. "Hey... You alright?"

Sasuke frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Dunno, you look... Not fine."

"You're looking wrong," he snapped, and turned away when Sakura peered at him.

Yeah, right. Sasuke was still kind of pale, Naruto wasn't sure how he'd missed it. "No, don't think so."

Sasuke growled and rolled his eyes. "Who do you think was holding the wards and trying to complete the seal while you were playing chakra flash-flood?" He still wouldn't look at Sakura, and only gave Naruto a quick glare before glancing away again. "...I'm a little tired, that's all."

-- which meant it wasn't just simple exhaustion, or else he wouldn't have admitted even that much. But if he was admitting it, it meant he was using it as misdirection for something more. Damn it. Naruto scowled, opened his mouth to prod him again.

Sakura moved fluidly up on her knees, and leaned against Sasuke's back. She rested a hand on his shoulder; the other crept around his chest. "I'm sorry we worried you," she whispered against his shoulder, and then she hugged him and Sasuke pretty much stopped breathing.

Naruto watched. The curve of Sakura's hip and the contour of her breast against Sasuke's shoulder, and her claws brushing against his collarbone. And Sasuke's clenched fists, tendons rolling under his skin, and the arch of his neck, and his eyes, unfocused and -- vulnerable. Almost.

"... I wasn't worried," Sasuke muttered under his breath, halfheartedly. And then he closed his eyes, and Naruto knew that it had been much worse than simple worry.

He reached out to stabilize Sasuke's unsteady crouch, a hand on his chest -- blue cloth, cool skin underneath. Sasuke opened his eyes to look at him, and Naruto slipped a hand around his neck and pulled him down for a short, insistent kiss.

"Hey, asshole."

Sasuke glared at him, but it didn't have any fire in it. "What, dead-last?"

We're fine, Naruto wanted to say. He even wanted to give an apology for scaring him, but then Sasuke would kill them both just so he could pretend it had never happened. So in the end Naruto just grinned. "It's not that late, is it? The seal didn't take that long. Not even -- what, eleven? Eleven thirty?"

"I think so..." Sakura gave him a curious look from over Sasuke's shoulder. Naruto beamed.

"Good! Then it means we've got the rest of the night to celebrate."

And before either of them could tell him no, he closed his fingers on Sasuke's t-shirt and pulled, bringing them both down on top of him. Their weight knocked the breath out of him; he wheezed out a laugh, his arms moving around to hold them both.

"Don't you think we have more important things to do?" Sasuke protested as he tried to find a support to push himself off Naruto.

"Oh, lay off about the seal, we've been working on it nonstop for the last month and a half, maybe longer. It's over now."

Sasuke sneered at him and tried to push himself up on his hands despite Sakura's weight on his back. "I was thinking more about checking that we're not about to be invaded by a platoon of ANBU."

"They can watch," Sakura offered magnanimously.

Sasuke craned his neck to stare at her, and he and Naruto blinked in unison.

"... Gee, don't laugh so hard at my jokes, guys, they're not that funny."

Naruto smirked. "And here I was happy you were finally getting kinky."

"You two--"

Naruto growled, cutting Sasuke off before he could get going. "Shut up. We're going to go to bed and fuck like bunnies. That's what we're going to do. And if the ANBU wants a look, they can cough up an entry fee and shut the hell up."

"You can't be serious," Sasuke growled back, though Naruto thought his voice lacked the proper resonance to make it vicious enough.

"I'm serious," Sakura replied instead, and then she bit Sasuke's shoulder.

By the way Sasuke jerked, Naruto thought he could safely assume she had also grown fangs.

By what he could feel now against his stomach, Sasuke wasn't as not-in-the-mood as he was trying to pretend. That or even his steely self-control wasn't absolute enough to fight teenage hormones.

"--Sakura -- Naruto, don't be stupid, we'll have all the time in the world later -- we should be erasing our tracks, reassuring -- nngh."

Naruto's hands were tight on Sasuke's hips; he tangled their legs together, rubbed the side of his foot against one of Sakura's calves and watched her nibble on Sasuke's ear.

"Like everyone involved in the whole surveillance business doesn't already think we're having sex!" she grumbled. She was blushing, but it didn't make her scowl any less determined. "So if they're going to think we're doing it regardless, I wouldn't mind it actually happening. It's been _months_!"

"Only two..."

Naruto grinned, eyes narrowed predatorily. "Sasuke... Don't make us tear off your clothes with our teeth. We'd do it."

"Oh, can the porn star lines," Sasuke snapped, and heaved himself up suddenly. Sakura squeaked, rolled to the side. Naruto started to dig his fingers into Sasuke's hips, but his claws caught skin and he hesitated. Sasuke tore himself free too fast, and then there were faint white lines in the middle of the red imprints left by Naruto's fingers.

They all sat on the floor, Sakura with her legs folded to the side, Naruto with his own stretched out, Sasuke ready to push himself up.

And then Sakura leaned toward Sasuke, slipped a finger in his collar, and pulled down.

"...I think I like the claws," she mused, staring at her hand in surprise and approval. Sasuke was gaping at her, sitting there dumbly with his t-shirt torn open down to his stomach.

Naruto started laughing, and reached for Sasuke to tear off the rest of his clothes. Startled out of his astonishment, Sasuke batted his hands away, pushing himself away from them with his heels.

... Hohoho.

Naruto rolled on his hands and knees, and grinned. He'd been meaning to jump Sakura's bones too, but in the mood she was in right now, it was a toss-up who would jump each other first... And getting Sasuke to accept that it was _over_ already and that they were _safe_ and _together_ came first -- she already knew that.

He could always tackle and bite and happily fuck her afterwards.

They kept moving forward on hands and knees; Sasuke kept moving back on his ass. The scene would probably look quite ridiculous to an outsider, but Naruto didn't care, because there was an off-balance look in Sasuke's eyes, and he could catch glimpses of his nipples and flat stomach through the torn shirt, and Sakura's bra really wasn't hiding much, and Naruto really, really enjoyed seeing her like that.

"This isn't funny -- are you _hunting _me?"

Sakura huffed, blowing a pink lock away from her face. "Yes. And I'm sure I'll be very sorry tomorrow. I'll apologize, even."

Sasuke tried to move to the side, but Naruto crawled that way to flank him. The black-haired boy glared at him briefly -- and Sakura pounced.

Sasuke wheezed, the breath knocked from his lungs. "Sakura, damn it, what's gotten into you!?"

Naruto laughed, hard and loud and way too amused; "It's more about what hasn't." and Sasuke glared at him briefly --

-- Straddling Sasuke's hips, she took fistfuls of Sasuke's shirt to tear off, leaned down to get in his face. She was breathing hard -- annoyance, arousal, Naruto didn't know and didn't care.

"Sakura--"

"You're _hard_, Sasuke," she snapped back with surprising anger. Under her, Sasuke had stopped breathing. "You're hard and you want it, and like hell you're going to have 'I was drunk' as an excuse every single time this happens. So I'm giving you a choice."

Naruto stared, shocked. This... was a lot deeper than simple annoyance at Sasuke's frigid ways.

"Tell me it isn't for me, not even a little bit. Tell me I'm not hot enough for you, tell me you just don't like me like that; tell me whatever. But tell me now, and _mean _it. Because otherwise I'm going to have sex with you."

"... Sakura..." Sasuke hesitated, frowned -- and then Sakura was kissing him, hard, with teeth. It wasn't a gentle, lingering kiss, or a sexy, enticing kiss. There was despair in there; love, too, lots and lots, and desire and pain.

Naruto realized he wasn't breathing much either.

He wanted them both so much -- for so much more than just sex. He wanted to hold them and possess them and be possessed by them and know that they were never going to let go, and he wanted to feel their fingers between his as they came, and he wanted them to give themselves to him -- not even for the thrill of calling the shots, just for the trust and the love, and the belonging to him, belonging with them. And what Sakura wanted -- it was just that.

Teammates -- being teammates was everything. And yet in the long run it wasn't going to be enough.

When Sasuke's arms rose and wound themselves around her back, reluctant at first, and then tight enough to make his muscles shift under his skin, make the breath leave her in a startled little gasp, Naruto shuddered and threw himself at them. He wound an arm around Sakura's waist, dug his fingers into Sasuke's biceps, and bit and kissed her shoulder. Sasuke was kissing Sakura back now, eyes closed; when she whimpered breathlessly, Sasuke made a startled little grunt in echo.

Naruto whined softly, desperate. Because Sasuke... Because that was what Sakura wanted to know, if he'd ever, ever let her in -- and now there Naruto was, alone on the outside, and he was glad for them both -- and he couldn't take it.

"Love you," he whispered past the knot in his throat. He didn't even know which one he was saying it to. "Love you, love you."

Sakura's breath hitched and she broke the kiss, just long enough to nod jerkily. Naruto didn't know what it meant -- who she wanted to tell it to. Sasuke was panting under her, his fingers still digging into her back, his eyes still closed. Naruto growled, pushed her aside enough to get at his mouth -- he bit him, tasted blood, was bit back. Good. Sakura rubbed her cheek against his, and her lips; dropped kisses on Naruto's eyebrow and Sasuke's eyelid and the flat of his nose, and then her lips brushed his and Sasuke's somehow -- and he hadn't known they could do that, a three-way kiss. It was awkward, with little freedom of movement, but it calmed him down a little anyway. He laughed, more out of relief than amusement.

"Love you," Sakura choked out. Naruto kissed wetness away, and she closed her eyes.

Against his arm, he could feel Sasuke's hand undoing her bra strap, and he laughed again, shocked and a little thrilled, and really, not surprised at all that Sasuke was trying to get out of saying it back. "Asshole."

Sakura laughed with him, and kissed Sasuke again, hands cupping his face. The two of them paused, just -- looking into each other's eyes, and Naruto felt like a fifth or even seventh wheel again, but this time he made himself not interrupt. Sakura-chan getting Sasuke to _want_, not just tolerate her -- Sasuke learning not to be quite so wary and guarded... It was great for them both. It really was. She'd be good for him.

"... Asshole yourself, retard."

Sakura burst out into snickers, because Sasuke hadn't even looked away from her one second, but his hand was still under Naruto's nose, closed into a fist but for his middle finger.

What could Naruto do, but sneer at him and then bite it? Nothing else, really. Fucking angsty, antisocial bastard. He wrapped his lips around Sasuke's finger and sucked wetly, still glaring at him, daring him to make something of it.

"... Fuck."

Naruto smirked and curled his tongue around the base of Sasuke's finger a last time. "I'd think it's closer to a blowjob, myself."

Sakura was still laughing herself breathless, in between two kisses to Sasuke's jaw. "Boys. You're getting all worked up over going down on a _finger_."

Sasuke made an annoyed noise and slipped his Naruto-free hand under her to cup a breast, making her gasp and stop laughing very quickly. "Shut up, or you won't get any."

Sakura squeaked in outrage and sat up on him hurriedly. "Just try to stop me!"

Naruto couldn't help but laugh, and laugh. He'd never seen them so arousing -- both flushed in offended annoyance, Sasuke pinned down between Sakura's thighs and Sakura fighting to whip off her own bra. Visibly she intended to ride him like a pony. "Hold your -- heh -- hold your horses, Sakura-chan. Might be better in the bedroom, yeah?"

She glared at him for interrupting, claws digging into the floor on both sides of Sasuke's head.

"... Also, if you let him get up, it will be a lot easier to yank his pants down. 'Cause you know, right now it's gonna be a bit complicated."

A second later, Sasuke was alone on the floor, sprawled on his back between her feet, and she was pulling on his arm to get him to stand up.

"What the hell?!" Sasuke protested. He looked quite molestable, with reddened hickeys on his skin and hair all over the place, and Naruto was tempted to yank his pants off and jump him right there anyway.

"I want to be in our bed," Sakura retorted. Naruto blinked, because it wasn't much of a bed -- three layers of blankets, and ratty sleeping bags -- but the way she said it, it was a king-sized, artistically carved oak affair with down-filled pillows.

One that needed proper christening.

He could get behind that.

He leaned down, caught Sasuke's other arm to haul him up. Scowling, Sasuke tried to pull free, but neither he nor Sakura relaxed their grip; and then there were two sets of claws at his waistband anyway.

Naruto really appreciated working in tandem with Sakura-chan. Especially when it was about shredding Sasuke's clothes off him.

"My pants, you retards! You're both crazy!"

They probably were, at that. But it seemed 'crazy' got Sasuke going anyway. And seeing how much Sasuke really wanted them, no matter what he pretended, didn't make Naruto's own underwear feel any less constricting.

"... Okay! We're going now." Claw-tipped fingers circling Sasuke's wrist, Sakura forged ahead, bare feet stomping on the wooden planks, small, firm breasts bouncing freely in rhythm with her steps. Sasuke went along with it for a few steps, a little dazed, but when they passed through the door between the dojo and the house, he dug in his heels.

"Wait--"

"No!" Naruto interrupted him. "No more wait. I'm tired of waiting." Naruto twisted Sasuke's arm behind his back -- Sasuke let him -- and pushed the black-haired boy forward with his body. If he stole a grope or two in the process of manhandling Sasuke there, it wasn't Sakura who was going to berate him.

It was dark in the living room, where they slept, but Sakura's skin was pale and her biker shorts black, and so it wasn't easy to miss it when she rolled them down her legs.

She went to the nest of blankets they called a bed and sat there, waiting.

This time Naruto didn't need to push Sasuke to join her. They went together, shoulder against shoulder.

* * *

... Omigod the chapter of DOOM is over. :ded:

And with it, **Teamwork 2 is almost over!** Next up are : an epilogue from Kakashi's POV, a series of one-shot interludes to deal with a couple of loose ends, perhaps one or two three-parters, and then Teamwork 3 will start. But since I know people are lazy, and I don't want to figure out how to post everything without confusing the readers as to what happens when, and in which order they're supposed to read the stories, **I'll still post everything in here, so you don't have to keep an eye out for another fic or ten.** XD

... So basically nothing really changes, except the title of the chapters. And the size of said chapters. Thank god, they were really getting way too big. u.u


	9. Epilogue : Kakashi : Damage Control

(A rant-less author's note! O.o) Many thanks to everyone who ever reviewed this fic, or even just read it. I don't think I would have developed this little universe even half that much if I hadn't had your support. Thank you.  
Remember, after this epilogue, I'm still going to post interludes in here so you don't have to run all over my profile to find the correct order.

As for writing a lemon for the end of the previous chapter, umm. I tried. I just couldn't feel it. My porn muse, she is broken. ;.;

* * *

**Epilogue ****: Damage Control**

**(Kakashi)**

Playing cards in the dark was, no doubt, out of reach of most men. It wasn't even Kakashi's deck; he'd had to guess the code of bent edges and creases on the identical rectangles of cardboard from scratch. It had been an uphill battle, but he wasn't doing too badly now : Jiraiya's nose wasn't keen enough to smell the difference between red and black ink, and Kakashi had taken to rubbing his fingers on his smoke bombs before handling hearts or spades.

Of course, the game was based as much on bluff as on sleight of hand, seeing as both of them had to trust in their belief that the cards they held were actually the ones they believed them to be. Or at least, had to move and sound like they trusted their belief enough that the other man would trust it too.

Really, it was a game made for liars; the cards were almost an excuse.

Kakashi had won a blank scroll, and a sneak peek at the next Icha Icha book, and lost a box of mint pastilles, five kunai and a backup mask, when the barrier went up around the Uchiha district, locking them in. He went on to lose a length of razor wire and get back a shuriken and a toothbrush before the game was put on hold.

Outside of the abandoned garden shack, the night was a lot less dark; not so much because of the full moon, or the streetlamps of the village behind the Uchiha walls -- but because three streets away, there was his brats' temporary house, with a cold, silvery glow streaming out of every single crack.

The windows were high and narrow, made more for aeration than for a look or a way out, and no house faced them directly. Vantage points were rare, and Kakashi knew better than to try sticking to the walls of the dojo itself. Jiraiya was the specialist; Kakashi ceded his claim to the only signpost close to the dojo and waited on the nearest roof, his eye on Jiraiya's face. He could see the fluctuations of the chakra glow from the corner of his eye, but the best information on their progress he could get was the pinched look of the old sage's lips or his occasional approving nod.

They'd done the best they could to give his kids all information pertaining to their little attempt. But Kakashi hadn't been able to do more than steal a glance at Sakura's part of the equations; and even if Sasuke's were also perfect... Well, there was a risk. There was always a risk, when doing such a seal alone.

He'd wanted to be there from the start, but Jiraiya hadn't approved. If something went wrong, it was better for them to come across as the teachers who hadn't known, but had managed to salvage the situation anyway, than as having aided and abetted such a risky gamble. They couldn't help the brats if they were all locked up in the same cell, after all.

So they waited.

Comparatively speaking, they didn't have to wait very long. Kakashi didn't even need to see the flash of alarm on Jiraiya's face; the sudden burst of red-gold chakra was telling enough. He was breaking into the main house before he even heard the first tinkle of cracking glass. Red light filtered under the communication door between the house and the dojo.

The walls trembled. He heard a dull, heavy impact, Sasuke's gasp; he rushed for the door.

A sigil flared at him, burning his fingers before he could catch the handle, and he was torn between admiration at his kids' healthy professional paranoia and despair that this might give them the few seconds Kyuubi needed. They had redirected the excess energy from the sealing process to use as a power source for a barrier around the dojo.

It was a brilliant piece of work. If it didn't kill them, he would. He could see one of Jiraiya's huge frogs outside in the garden, kicking and kicking at the walls, which didn't budge any.

He could feel the Kyuubi's chakra behind the door, huge and malevolent, seeping into everything.

_"Sakura! Breathe, damn it -- breathe! Don't you dare-- Sakura!"_

The Chidori was supposed to be used against physical targets; he had never tried to see what would happen if it hit a barrier. Likely enough, it would overload and explode outwards with lethal force. He started to shape the seals.

"Kakashi," Jiraiya snapped from the garden. He sat atop his frog, a scroll tucked between thumb and index as he shaped a hand seal. Kakashi forced himself to be still, even when more glass broke, when the walls trembled again. He could barely hear Sasuke's voice over the crackle of red chakra.

_"--okay? You can do this. Listen to me.__ On three..."_

... Good. Sasuke had kept his cool. Good boy. Don't panic. Keep in control. The demon chakra pulsed, once, twice; Kakashi waited for a sudden flare. Jiraiya was still working on taking down the barrier. It had only been two minutes; that was already two minutes too long.

The red chakra started to build up. And build up, and up, like an avalanche waiting to happen, reeking of old blood and rage and death. Kakashi had felt it before; he didn't stumble, didn't pull back and throw up, but the bile still rose in his throat.

_"Naruto! What the hell are you doing?!"_

He started to ready the Chidori again.

_"Naruto, damn it, don't make me--"_

The rising tension in the dojo suddenly petered out, leaving Kakashi reeling. He braced himself for a reflux, but while the decrease of the malevolent chakra slowed down, it never did go back up.

But it didn't disappear -- Naruto's presence didn't disappear. Kakashi latched onto that, the hint of rambunctious chakra flickering behind that door. He didn't even want to think about what it would have done to Sasuke to be forced to put down his best friend.

The red light under the door died. Kakashi was still staring, trying to understand enough of their muffled mutterings to tell what was going on, when he heard Sakura laugh. He closed his eyes briefly, glanced at the old sage. Jiraiya's shoulders sagged in relief.

Slowly, Kakashi moved away from the door, and slunk out of the window to join the man and his frog in the garden.

"Everything alright?"

Jiraiya nodded. "The sigils on the floor look correct from here. The new seal seems to have taken hold properly..."

"... Good."

Jiraiya slid down his frog's back to stand in the overgrown grass. "Even if the seal is imperfect, we should have at least a few hours, at best a week, to fix it."

Kakashi shook his head ruefully. "Those brats are going to make me go gray early."

Jiraiya snorted at the poor joke, though it carried more agreement than mockery.

"I'll stay here to watch for trouble; you go and tell the ANBU to stand down."

Kakashi gave Jiraiya and his noble, responsible countenance a weary look. He could have bet the sage just didn't want to run the risk of having to deal with Tsunade-sama.

"Yes, yes..." he agreed tiredly, and went.

The Uchiha district's barrier was undoubtedly a great achievement, but, like any static defense, the lack of human casters to readjust to attacks gave it some vulnerabilities. Kakashi recognized an old barrier specialist, who looked like the ANBU had dragged him out of bed, at the head of the team prying away at one of the angles. Sasuke probably wouldn't appreciate seeing his barrier dismantled, especially since he didn't have the competences to build it back up, so Kakashi strolled that way first.

"Tachibana-san, hello!" he greeted cheerily from his roof.

The withered old man gave him a glare that would have stopped a whole platoon in their tracks -- a look that many of the jounin waiting on the opposing roofs echoed. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head guiltily, and waited as the commanders of two ANBU squads converged on him.

"Jiraiya-sama has the situation under control," he assured them before they could ask.

"What the hell is going on?" Crow mask demanded.

Kakashi shrugged noncommittally. "Where is Tsunade-sama?"

The set of Crow's shoulders indicated a whole lot of annoyance, but Bear stepped forward and Crow relaxed. Kakashi nodded amiably at the older female, who, despite the mask hiding her eyes, managed to convey her "cut the bullshit" look just fine.

"Jiraiya-sama is inside the barrier?" she asked for confirmation.

Kakashi nodded, amused that his reputation for evasiveness and willful misunderstandings was still going strong. "Yes. He's standing guard no farther than fifteen feet away from Naruto. There's no need to break open the barrier now. Sasuke-kun will take it down as soon as possible."

She considered him in silence for a few seconds, and then sighed briefly. "I suppose you can't tell us what happened yet."

"Sorry," Kakashi replied, almost sincerely.

"If you're trying to cover up for your students..."

Kakashi snorted softly. "Even with the barrier down, I don't see where they'd run to. If I'm covering for them, that's not going to do anything but delay the inevitable."

He was pretty sure they weren't convinced, and with good reason -- there was plenty you could do with a sufficient delay -- but Bear dispatched one of her men anyway. Kakashi sat on his heels and waited for Tsunade's orders.

She came directly instead, with two Councilmen trailing after her; Aburame Shibi and that old woman who had been the Third's teammate and personal advisor, Koharu. Tsunade looked positively thunderous.

"Kakashi," she growled, and briefly he was glad for the barrier between them.

"...Tsunade-sama!" He laughed, somewhat nervously. She looked furious enough to punch right through the barrier. "Ah, you didn't get Jiraiya's message?"

The Hokage went from thunderous to apocalyptic. "What kind of message is --" She managed to stop herself before a critical meltdown; Kakashi wasn't sure how. The barrier-breakers and the ANBU were doing their best to pretend that they weren't listening. "... Yes. I got his message. Five minutes ago."

"Ah. ...Well." Kakashi sighed. Maybe not warning Tsunade before her ANBU reported the incident was part of Jiraiya's plan, but if so, Kakashi wasn't sure what sort of spin to put on it. "I'll go and fetch him, then, shall I?"

He was gone before she could stop him.

Jiraiya and he had planned to stress to Tsunade that Team Seven had needed to try their own way to save Sakura. If things had progressed any longer as they were, with training that didn't go anywhere and without anything to strive forward, Naruto and Sasuke would have eventually lost patience, grabbed Sakura, and skipped town. Sasuke had already proved that if push came to shove, he would look for his solutions elsewhere, and Naruto... Naruto still wanted to become Hokage, but Hokage was abstract, far away, and his lovers and potential child weren't.

If Sakura had died -- Tsunade couldn't deny how likely that had been, even with her emergency, last-resort measures, however much she downplayed it for the children -- Konoha would have lost them both forever.

With Koharu around, though... The old woman already thought that Tsunade was way too personally attached to what amounted to a living, ticking time-bomb; she didn't need more ammunition to use against Naruto. Kakashi was also pretty sure that amongst the ANBU were a few of Danzou's men, and Danzou didn't bother hiding that he thought Sasuke should have been destroyed the second they brought him back; at most, he would compromise far enough to accept that Sasuke would only be executed after making sure they had enough sperm samples to preserve the Sharingan genes.

Kakashi didn't have enough pull to smooth out the whole incident with Tsunade herself, much less with her advisors, and his allegiance was already suspect as it was. Teachers were supposed to be fond of their students, but apparently not when the students were a traitor and a demon. Who would have known.

He had expected Jiraiya to be inside, checking on Sakura's seal. But Jiraiya was sitting alone on the gallery, a strange chagrined-yet-amused look on his face. He smirked up at Kakashi as Kakashi approached.

"Tsunade-sama is asking for you," Kakashi said first, just for the pleasure of watching that smugness falter a bit. "How do their seals check out?"

Jiraiya pushed himself up, another smirk blooming on his face. "I wouldn't know."

Kakashi arched his visible eyebrow. If the seals were stable now, they would hold on a little while longer, but still.

"I'll check later," Jiraiya added breezily. "It's going to take a while anyway, and Tsunade will be very displeased if her explanation has to wait that long. You're welcome to check on them, of course; I took down the barrier around the dojo."

He walked away from the house, long ponytail swinging with his purposeful steps. Kakashi watched him go, trying to shake off the unpleasant feeling that the man had omitted some critical piece of information.

When he stepped up on the gallery and nudged open the door to the living room where his kids had made their bed, he got an unwelcome confirmation. Tsunade's displeasure was probably the last thing on Jiraiya's mind when he decided to push back the check-up.

Also, the kids weren't in the dojo anymore.

Kakashi pulled the door closed again, turned around, walked to the other end of the gallery in silence and sat down, wondering if there was a way, other than head trauma, to unsee what he'd seen. He had never really wanted to know that his adorable students were bendy and motivated enough to do Volume 2, page 35. Really.

Annoying little brats.

He was really quite glad today wouldn't be the day he lost one of them.


	10. Interlude: Sakura : Rise

Two ficlets added in Teamwork Ficlets (in my stories). A Naruto POV about Sakura and cravings, and a Bad Guys point of view, a few weeks after the point where Teamwork diverged from the manga timeline.

**Interlude: Rise  
(Sakura)**

"No visible sign of organ damage."

Tsunade steps away from the examination table, picks up a pen from her desk, and jots down a handful of quick observations. Her handwriting is crisp, fast, full of slashes. There's a wrinkle between her eyebrows, a tension in her jaws. Sakura waits. She heard the _'You got a lot more lucky than you deserved' _underneath just fine.

Tsunade spears her with a narrow-eyed look, and then ignores her again. There's disappointment in there, and Sakura wants to flinch, because she knows that Hokage-sama counted on her to be the most responsible of the three, the one who doesn't run off to do half-baked things.

It would probably be smart to keep quiet, at this point. But seeing Tsunade-sama so angry that she isn't even willing to look at Sakura more than necessary -- it hurts. Sakura doesn't know when she started to relax around the illustrious Godaime Hokage-sama, especially since she only got to be in the woman's company to make sure that the silly little girl who got in way over her head wouldn't become a danger to herself and to others; but losing her respect hurts.

"When should I come back for a check-up?"

"It won't be necessary."

Sakura is so stricken by Tsunade's dispassionate tone, she can't find the voice to question her.

"Jiraiya's fixes settled well. They'll hold. Kakashi will be monitoring your chakra levels; if there's trouble, he'll warn Jiraiya. You have the schedule for the following monthly check-ups."

Sakura would be expecting another lecture there; _'if you feel anything abnormal, warn us,'_ _'don't strain unless absolutely necessary, just in case.'_ But apparently, her common sense has definitely been put back on the questionable list.

Tsunade moves back behind her desk, sits down and takes a few more notes. It's a clear dismissal.

Sakura doesn't leave. Because if she leaves now she'll never find the nerve to come back.

"Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade frowns, surprised. Sakura doesn't allow herself to look away, meeting her eyes frankly. She can do it. She knows she can do it. She's not going to be afraid. She's got nothing to lose.

"Please train me."

She caught the woman by surprise; she can see Tsunade trying to make sense of that request. Good. That's an opening. A tiny one, but maybe it will be enough.

"It's not like you need help augmenting your chakra level anymore," the Hokage replies dryly.

Sakura shakes her head, still staring at her, clinging to her determination. She just can't back down now. "Of course I do."

Tsunade's brow wrinkles again; she leans back in her chair, an elbow on the desk; it's a _'You just won ten seconds of my attention, don't waste them' _pose. Sakura doesn't plan to.

"That new chakra... It's not my strength. It's Naruto's." Sakura hesitates, looking for the right words. "The baby needs it. I need it. I don't want to die, so I'll take it. And if there's a mission and I'm in way over my head -- I'll take _more_. But it's not mine. It's -- it's cheating. And I'll cheat if I _have_ to, but -- I don't want to have to."

Tsunade's brow is still wrinkled, but she's listening.

"... I'm just sick of having to rely on them all the time, to -- to ride on their coattails, and lag behind all the time," Sakura admits softly, a hand rising to rub at her belly reflexively. "I want -- I _need_ to get stronger on my own. I hate that all this mess was necessary. There's just this ocean of raw chakra that burns me if I try to mold it, and if I do more than dip my toes, I'll end up bowled over. I can't _do_ anything with it; it's just Naruto saving me again because I can't do it myself. I'm not any stronger now than I was last week."

She looks down briefly, and then meets Tsunade's eyes again, pleading this time.

"You made me stronger. You taught me jutsu I'd never heard of, that Kakashi-sensei doesn't even know, that Shizune-san would never have taught me -- and I know it was only so I wouldn't burn out on all the endurance training, but it was the most difficult and _fascinating_ thing I ever learned, and -- I want to learn more. I really do."

Tsunade is still silent, still unmoving; Sakura's desperate hope wanes slowly.

"I know that you're very busy. I know that you only trained me because I needed help with my chakra levels -- and I'm not a genius or a chakra-monster by any means --" what she really thinks is that she's weak, and she dreamed too big when she took Tsunade's encouragements and pleased smiles to heart, when she thought that maybe she has what it takes to learn directly from the most powerful and skilled person in the village. "-- but I'd do my best. Even if I could just observe -- you wouldn't even have to teach me directly..."

Her voice dies. She's too close to begging, and that -- being taken in because Tsunade pities her and not because she has what it takes -- it would be even worse than being rejected.

Tsunade's frown smoothes out slightly; but her look isn't getting friendlier so much as clinical and remote. That's a no, then.

"What do you hope me to teach you?"

Sakura swallows past the knot in her throat, and gambles -- all or nothing. "Everything you know. Everything."

"Huh. Everything, really," Tsunade drawls. "You seem to have a high opinion of your abilities."

That wasn't a rebuttal. It was a challenge. Sakura squares her shoulders, daring to hope again. "I won't know if I can do it if I don't try my best. I know I'm not a powerhouse. I'm more suited to genjutsu -- to precise and -- you know, subtle things. I want to learn to use that to my best advantage. And medical jutsu... There's so many of them, and so many ways to use them. I want to get better in taijutsu too -- and you're the strongest fighter in the village." She hesitates, then, but only for a second. "I want to learn how the village works. How to deal with behind-the-scene influences."

She surprised Tsunade again, she can see it. The Hokage leans forward now, hands joined in front of her mouth to mask her expression. "Hmm. I didn't peg you as someone interested in intrigues."

Sakura dares a smile, a tiny one. "I'm not. But Naruto will never be subtle enough to notice anything until it jumps him, and he will never know any other approach to solve things than getting in people's face about it. And Sasuke -- he's subtle enough for politics, but he doesn't have the patience, and he'll hate it -- and I wouldn't be surprised if no one really trusts him. I want to learn to read the signs, so that we might at least be aware of what's going on. They will never be unimportant enough to evade all scrutiny."

Tsunade nods slowly. Sakura's smile widens a little.

"That's true... They have champions, though. You could trust them."

Sakura shakes her head slowly, still smiling. She can't express how grateful she is for the offer. Her voice turns soft; she lets it.

"I do trust you. But... I feel that we are behaving like children. Hiding behind the adults who deal with bad things on our behalf, and unaware of what's really at stake, and... It's unpleasant, but they're our problems. It's hard, to be patted on the head and told not to worry, that the adults will fix everything, when we're the ones who are really concerned -- the ones people are risking themselves for."

"... And you're not children anymore."

"No, we're not," Sakura agrees quietly.

Tsunade sighs, leans back in her chair, eyes closed, deep in thought.

"If you want to be trusted, you're going to have to stop pulling such stupid stunts behind our backs," she warns eventually, stern, almost grim.

Well, technically, Jiraiya and Kakashi were aware of it. Unofficially. But Sakura knows better than to point that out. She starts to smile a little wider. "Yes, Tsunade-sama."

"Tomorrow, at five sharp. Now get out."

A grin blossoming on her face, Sakura bows deep. "Yes, Tsunade-sama!"

She walks out briskly. She's never had such a hard time keeping herself from dancing.


	11. Interlude: Naruto: House of Dogs

Thanks to Monique27 for the quick fly-by beta! All mistakes left are entirely mine.

Mm, crack.

Teamwork 2, especially toward the end, was mostly about Team Seven and inter-relationships, so the interludes are about each member interacting with an outsider, plus, if possible, some fallout from the whole seal mess. There is still Sasuke's interlude to go, and then perhaps another one (but then it might end up a nonessential sidefic if it takes me too long to finish, I don't know yet) and then Teamwork 3 will begin.

* * *

**Interlude: House of Dogs **

**(Naruto)**

Inuzuka Tsume is a scary-looking woman. A wild, choppy mess of hair, crazy-looking slit eyes with no visible irises, strong shoulders, claw-tipped hands with tendons and veins in sharp relief -- except for the fact that she has boobs, she looks like Kiba with lipstick.

It would be hilarious, if she wasn't terrifying. Naruto's pretty sure she wouldn't have much of a problem about going straight for his throat with nothing but her teeth. The way she rakes him with her eyes, missing nothing and finding everything wanting, the way she circles with her hands on her hips... And then there's her huge, scarred wolf-dog, who sits there, totally still, and waits for permission to eat him.

"Ma'am?" Naruto says, and laughs, a little nervously.

There's more silence as she straightens up. She's not tall, not really -- Naruto is taller than she is -- but, maybe it's the mane of wild hair, or the creepy eyes; he doesn't want to cross her anyway.

"Do you know what you're here for?" she rasps.

"Er, yeah? I've got problems with the bastard fox..."

She shakes her head, not quite like he's wrong, but like she didn't expect much and wasn't disappointed. "That's all they told you, huh?" The wolf-dog grunts, vaguely contemptuous; Tsume shifts her weight onto her other foot, crossing her arms over her stomach like she's getting ready for a long, boring talk. "Don't expect miracles, kid. I don't know who thought up that brilliant idea first, but I'm not going to be able to fix every single problem you've got."

Naruto scowls. "If you can't help me, then what am I doing here?"

"I didn't say I couldn't help at all. But I have no miracle cure. You're not an Inuzuka and we're not demon carriers. You've got issues I can do exactly jack shit about."

"Great," Naruto grumbles under his breath. "So I'm wasting my time, huh?"

The wolf-dog curls up his lip, flashing yellowed fangs at Naruto. "It's the other way around, punk."

Naruto jumps. "You talk? -- Hey! Don't call me that!"

He glares at the wolf, who gazes back lazily, like he's vaguely wondering which part of Naruto's body would be tastier. Inuzuka Tsume snorts. "You don't listen well, do you."

"I listen just fine!"

The woman sighs, arms unfolding, and in three long steps, she's in front of him, with her hand clamped on the back of his neck to pull him down to her level. Meep.

"Don't make me shake you. What are you, a puppy?"

"... 'm not," Naruto grumbles, avoiding her eyes. She lets him go; he straightens up, disgruntled, and glares at her stubbornly.

"Good. I'm past the age to housebreak them." She gives him an amused look, not impressed by his attitude at all; Naruto sighs and relaxes a little, though he's still tempted to sulk. "Now I said I couldn't fix everything, but there are still tricks you ought to learn anyway. Come on."

The wolf on her heels, she strides toward the side of the house; there's a path between the wall and the fence, with a training field behind.

"The report says you get claws. You'll learn to use them right. Sense of smell as well. How's your night vision?"

Naruto scrambles to follow. "Um, okay? I get by. What do you mean use them right? It's not hard. Pointy end goes into people? Just like a kunai."

She snorts, smirks. "Not really, no. For one thing, you can't have it knocked out of your hand."

"Yeah, but you can't throw it either."

"There are advantages and inconveniences to both. As there are to sense of smell, hearing, night vision, detection of quick movements, sense of balance, etcetera. You'll learn how to use all of those properly, and how to know when it's better not to."

"Okay," Naruto says, and thinks privately that it doesn't sound as immensely useful as he hoped for, but hey, as long as it keeps the Council happy. At least it's not gonna be too hard, right?

* * *

As it turns out, he's wrong. And the Council isn't the only one who gets to feel like it's doing something for Naruto's little problem. 

After Kyuubi's latest stunt, Naruto is perfectly happy to keep the bastard fox locked up in the darkest, dankest corner of his inner world for the next century, but...

"How are you supposed to learn anything about something you pretend doesn't exist?"

Damn Tsume for making sense. So she makes him drag out the red chakra, just like Jiraiya did, and then she makes him manipulate it -- he's never done anything so hard and tedious since he learned to tree-walk.

He learns -- tries to learn -- to pull it to his nose in a handful of seconds, to heighten his sense of smell; she makes him track things across the field, and if he steps out of the path his target took, or even just if she feels like it, she throws stinking things at him. Vinegar, bleach, horse manure, moldy cheese; she says it's so he learns to turn off his sense of smell quickly, in case it's ever targeted, but he really thinks she's just that evil. Maybe she's taking revenge for that fart in Kiba's face six years ago.

He tries to learn to pull the red chakra to his hands, his feet, but to keep it inside his skin, change his flesh to fit it instead of letting it bubble over. He started out needing at least five minutes to grow full claws, and one time he got real frustrated and his arms got kind of furry, but now he goes from blunt nails to talons in under thirty-five seconds, and it's not awesome, but it's the best he can do. Sometimes the skin on the underside of his fingers and the heel of his hands hardens, too, and he can see it makes Tsume frown, but he thinks his control is already fine enough and he's not going to bother working on narrowing the affected area; it's easier to lean on his hands with pads, and anyway his calluses were almost just as thick already.

Tsume doesn't give a damn that sometimes his mind gets kind of hazy. He's got to do the drills anyway -- claws in! Claws out! Night vision! Nose! Let go! And if he gets angry, even black Kyuubi-rage, she just grabs him by the back of the neck and shakes him out of it.

In matters of chakra level, Naruto is stronger than she is. He's faster, too. Yet he still hasn't managed to dodge her neck-grab-and-shake trick even once. He thinks it might be a secret mom power.

As for the animal instincts that come sometimes, Tsume says she can't do much -- it's not a jutsu you learn, it's an ingrained habit that the members of your pack teach you -- but the first time Naruto tries to sniff Inuzuka Hana's crotch, he ends up kicked clear across the field and chased through half of Konoha by three snarling dogs; after that, fox-hazy or not, there is no second try.

Sadly, his chakra-manipulating skills don't progress as well as his socialization; so one morning he arrives at the Inuzuka's, and Tsume is grinning. He almost starts running the other way.

"I asked Hatake for advice," she says, and Naruto does start moving the other way, except her black wolf-dog is standing in his way.

They herd him down the road, right outside the village. Tsume is whistling, and Kuromaru's tail wags. Naruto is mildly terrified.

She unlocks one of the gates into the Forest of Death, gesturing at Naruto to get in first, and then when he trustingly walks in, she locks the gate behind him.

"I hid three things in this forest, kid. Find them and bring them back, and you pass."

Naruto relaxes enough to grin. He's survived the Forest a couple of times now. It will be fine. Go in, track her scent, get out. Easy as pie. "What do I gotta find?"

"Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?"

And then she walks away, leaving Naruto behind the fence.

"Hey, no fair! At least give me a clue!"

Tsume laughs, rough and low, and her dog's tongue lolls out of his mouth. "No clue. But I'll give you a tip, pup. There are many creatures born in this season." She pauses, smirks thinly over her shoulder. "Oh, and don't worry for your teammates, I'll tell them not to fret for at least a week."

Naruto has the strong feeling that he's going to die.

* * *

By "many creatures born this season," Tsume apparently didn't mean cute little fawns and bunnies. She meant baby giant tigers -- which means their mother is out hunting. 

She also meant giant centipedes, and blood-drinking wasps, and a bazillion metric fucktons of snakes.

He spends his first night running from tigers, and his morning pulling leeches from his legs. Next time mommy tiger comes after him, fuck the adorable giant kittens. He only finds fruit to eat, and ends up with a mild case of the runs. By mid-afternoon, it starts drizzling.

He trips on his first item -- an empty kunai pouch -- while busy swearing up a storm about the scent trail being erased by the water.

The second day, nothing, apart from an impressive nest of snakes. The half-erased scent trail he finds turns out to belong to some Inuzuka cousin or other -- the dog is female -- and -- it takes him a while to find a dry patch of grass to compare -- to be at least a week old beside.

After the fifth time the swarm of humongous spider-bees come after him, he learns to stop wasting his chakra with tree-sticking. The bitches feed on it; it's like broadcasting offers for an all-you-can-eat free buffet in Chouji's neighborhood. At least, the claws make for nice traction even on the wet bark, and he thinks he'll even learn to switch directions faster once he gets over his wondering what happens if his claws get stuck in the wood. He tore off nails before and, well, there's a reason it's a form of torture.

The second night, he gets some sleep all the way up in a tree. It's barely dawn when a vulture pecks him awake, mistaking him for a corpse with yummy fresh eyes. At least Naruto has a nice breakfast, even if the grilled chicken is a little gamey.

The third day, he decides to get fish. The decision comes to him after he jumps in the water to get the infestation of fire ants out of his clothes, but hey, no need to waste such an occasion.

The fourth day he starts getting a little better at sharing his attention between the trail he's following and the predators following him, and so when the fangy monkeys try it, he's ready to kick ass. He finds the second item hidden in an eagle's nest; getting the parents away long enough to get to it while keeping his eyes unpecked needs some creative use of Kage Bunshin, but he's pretty alright with that part. Pulling the old dog collar free from the nest without breaking the eggs is something else. Surely eagles can't count anyway.

The fifth day, nothing. The track doubles back almost every ten seconds and crosses the river a dozen times, or maybe he's losing count because he can't keep track of which end goes in which direction anymore. In the end he has to step back and circle the area as widely as he can to find the track again. By now, it's starting to fade, so he keeps going even when it gets dark.

Getting whipped in the face by vines that might actually be snakes or strange man-eating flowers is good incentive to learn to activate his senses of sight and smell in tandem, but in the end, the trail stops at a pond and nothing he does helps him find it again. He has a small screaming fit that frightens his corner of the forest into complete silence for at least ten minutes, which is creepy enough to calm him down.

The sixth day is better left unmentioned.

The seventh day, he braves the leeches in the pond, to make sure that the item he's looking for just didn't fall in from some overhead branch. It didn't. But there's a tunnel under the slimy surface and prickly plants that wasn't dug out by a beaver.

The item is a little plastic tube with a note on it. The note says "Good job! Now inject the antidote before the poisonous algae does you in."

Naruto starts to laugh, vowing to kill Inuzuka Tsume the second he's safely back out of that goddamn forest.

At least the trip out goes faster than the trip in, though still slowly enough that he has some time to notice everything he learned to do. Pop out the claws in five seconds or less, switch from scent to night eyesight and then back, hold onto both together, learn to track properly...

Sure, he kind of used almost all of what she taught him before, instinctually. But sometimes -- when he was angry -- the Kyuubi-influenced stuff was easy; sometimes it didn't even come to mind as a possibility. Now he doubts he'll ever forget he can do all that. And the more tightly he controls where the chakra goes and how much of it he uses, the fewer headaches he gets, and _that's_ worth the whole training by itself.

She's waiting when he reaches the gate. He howls an incoherent threat at her, but he's so tired it comes off as some kind of dying moo.

"... 'm done. Tell me it was all Kakashi's fault."

Tsume chuckles softly. "Not really. It's an old method of nin-dog training."

Naruto gave her an incredulous look. "You're training me like you would a _dog_?"

Kuromaru snorts. "If by dog you mean a _puppy_."

Naruto utters a short, shrill scream of frustration, grabbing his hair with both hands. "Here are your stupid items, now get me out of here!" He's famished, he stinks to high heaven, he's bruised all over and his clothes are ruined. If she doesn't approve, they're going to have words.

"Good!" she grunts.

Naruto feels like melting in relief and taking a nap on the spot. He grins, proud and exhausted.

She grins back.

"Now you're ready to do it with a blindfold."


	12. Interlude: Sasuke: Ghosts

O Sasuke, u so emo. ;.; Unbetaed, please tell me if there's any huge, glaring mistake? Still got a last interlude to write, but if it turns out to take too long, I'll stuff it in the Teamwork Ficlets file instead. I've been writing Teamwok 3 for NaNoWriMo (a speed-writing challenge for November) and I've already got a big chunk of it. I hope I can keep up the rhythm. XD;

One short SasuSaku ficlet added in the Teamwork Ficlets.

* * *

**Interlude: Ghosts  
****(Sasuke)**

There are no ghosts in this house. None of his, at any rate. There's Uchiha Hideyoshi; Uchiha Minako; Shin; Isamu; Kaede.

To him, nothing but names on paper.

He cannot tell if they would have begrudged his use of their home. They're smiling in most of the pictures he found, in the ones he placed on the small family shrine; so he tells himself they wouldn't have -- too much -- and goes about his day.

It would be easier to live with if he didn't have to cross half the Uchiha district every time he wants to leave the house. The first street is fine; he never used to explore this boring side of the district much. At the corner is an old well, with stone benches in a half-circle around. When the benches weren't taken over by crabby old people, he used to climb at the end of the first and leaped his way across.

Next is the street where the ice cream man had his stand. The garden with the huge dog. His mother's best friend's house. A tiny square with bushes that children pretended were perfect hiding places; they're overgrown enough to make their own jungle, now, except that half are withered.

Depending on which gate to the rest of the village he wishes to use, he can either walk past the piece of Uchiha training grounds that Itachi claimed as his own and the lake where Sasuke practiced Katon, or the charred remnants of his home. Most of the time, it's more practical to walk by his home.

Sakura has developed an inordinate fondness for a kind of sweets she says she can find nowhere but in the other direction. Naruto teases her about her hips; Sakura hits him, and says he deserves it for getting between a pregnant woman and her cravings.

They're so see-through it almost hurts, but acknowledging it would mean acknowledging they see through him as well. So he forks over the money for Sakura's sweets in silence, and doesn't elbow Naruto too hard when he leans over Sasuke's shoulder to steal from the bag.

Sasuke doesn't know what his ghosts would say about his two lovers and their bizarre, immoral arrangement.

So in the evenings, when all the training of the day is done, when Naruto is off with Iruka or Jiraiya or Kiba or whoever else, and Sakura is off with Ino, or her parents, Sasuke sits in front of his unknown cousins' little shrine and wonders about his own parents.

It isn't something he does often, thinking about his parents. It's hard to remember them without remembering how they were taken away, and then his focus shifts onto revenge, not remembrance. And he still needs to avenge them. It burns deep inside; he doesn't think it's ever going to stop. But he cannot give in to murderous, blind rages when he's faced with the picture of that black-haired, happy family. Hideyoshi; Minako; Shin; Isamu; Kaede.

If his parents had lived...

His father... A proud man, respectful of traditions, but not one who let rumors cow him either. Sasuke knows he would have disapproved of Team Seven's arrangement -- wouldn't have opposed Sasuke marrying outside the clan, but wouldn't have liked the fact that they don't even know who the father of the child is. He might even have looked down on Sakura for that, even though it wasn't her fault... No. No. Sasuke doesn't like to think that. His father was a just man.

Hopefully he wouldn't have begrudged Sasuke's friendship with Naruto, but he would never have wanted to hear about anything more than that. As long as Sasuke was married and had children, as long as he did his duty to the bloodline, his father probably would have pretended that any male lovers Sasuke had didn't exist. Not that Sasuke would have ever wanted to tell his father about any of that, so it would have been all right if he didn't want to know.

His mother... Sweet, caring, perpetually smiling. She would have been concerned -- probably for the same reasons Sakura's mother is so worried. She would have been sad about the way people might shun them...

And if they were still here to worry about, Sasuke might consider asking Naruto to never be more than their secret lover, the ex-teammate they happen to still be on good terms with, just for his mother not to be shunned because of him, just for his father not to lose face.

The point is moot anyway. Sasuke doesn't have to make this decision.

The thought of denying Naruto's importance to protect his _reputation_, of all things, makes him want to growl. He doesn't like the idea of letting outsiders know anything about his personal feelings, but if there is one thing that could prompt him to forego his pride and go along with public displays of affection, it's spite.

Only consideration for the feelings of his precious people places higher; but his parents are beyond that -- what does it matter if their second son has loose morals, compared to the fact that he betrayed Konoha, that he feels nothing at the thought of betraying it again, that if he still could, he'd leave again in a heartbeat.

Ultimately, his parents aren't here, and cannot judge what his life has become. If they were here -- even if the rest of the clan wasn't -- his life would be so different he doubts he would recognize himself; but they aren't, and torturing himself with what-ifs is a waste of time. He'll have to keep living with the thought that on this, at least, he would disappoint them. There are so many other things -- so much more important -- abandoned Konoha, tarnished the name of the Uchiha clan, came at his teammate and friend with the intent to kill -- for which he knows he would not get their forgiveness.

Of the four people whose opinion still matters to him, only Sakura and the child would be embarrassed, and even then it depends how and when the rumor spreads. Naruto would laugh and brag if people asked him the truth about their sentimental arrangement, and nothing fazes Kakashi.

His mother might have accepted them, though. As long as her son was happy.

Overall, he's not really happy; but that's nothing out of the ordinary. There are still problems to fix and jutsu to learn and progress to make and his brother to kill.

He's not happy often, but Naruto and Sakura help him not to be down or angry all the time either. He doesn't need them; he could do without them. But they're here and they're not going to let him go, and now, with the child, he can't let them go either. Even if it's not his. There are people who would love to get their hands on the Kyuubi's carrier's spawn. He'll kill them first, if Naruto doesn't.

Sakura smiles more these days; sometimes Sasuke catches himself smiling back. Naruto is insatiable in bed. Or out of bed. Everywhere.

The thought of losing his teammates makes him sick.

He shouldn't have stayed, after Naruto stopped him at the waterfall. He should have escaped from the hospital the second he could walk again. They're chaining him to them, to this village. They're dulling his resolve. They're not letting him hate enough.

Sasuke lives in terror of the day Itachi will fix that mistake for him.

He knows it will be enough; it will be the one thing he's still missing. If Itachi kills them, Sasuke will kill Itachi, no ifs or buts, no "not strong enough yet," no fancy tricks needed. He's sure of it -- sure that that's the only guaranteed method. If Sakura and Naruto die, then Itachi will die too.

And then Sasuke will follow.

He can't take it a second time.

He used to be unable to enjoy his present because his dreams were in his past; now he can't enjoy it because his future holds nightmares. He hates his teammates a little, he thinks. His goal wasn't so impossible when he had nothing left to lose.

He never should have let them worm their way in. The only way to keep them safe would have been to cut them out. But it's too late for that. They're targets, now. Leaving won't protect anyone anymore.

And so he sits in front of the shrine, and watches the incense sticks burn from tip to bottom. Those cousins he never knew smile at him from the picture, frozen and so far away he feels sometimes they have never been real, have never existed. Just like the boy he was, before his world was destroyed. Just like his family, with his strong father and gentle mother, and that big brother he loved, for and despite everything he was.

He wishes the child could have known his grandparents.


	13. TW3:Sasu:Water Country:Saku:First Test

Whee, ready to be posted. Thanks to Sarolynne for the quick beta! All mistakes left are my own fault for making too many for her to find. :-P

There are more sidefics I planned to insert in between Teamwork 2 and 3, but they're not written yet and I don't know if they will be; they're not very necessary anyway. The only one that has any repercussions on Teamwork 3 is the trip to Sand, and then only to explain why they're traveling together to start with.

This one is less romantic and a lot more action-oriented.

**Many, many thanks to everyone who ever reviewed the fic, and was patient with me, and even more thanks to you people who were nice enough to send me those huge reviews. Bwee, I love you. Will be doing my best to answer in the next week. I hope I don't forget anyone.**

* * *

**Teamwork 3**** - The Chuunin Exam**

**Chapter 1 ****: Water Country  
(****Sasuke)**

Ox. Hare. Monkey.

Sparks crackled in the palm of his left hand. He covered them with his other hand, ignoring the sting as a few tongues of dancing energy resisted his attempt to reshape them. It was hard work; lightning was fast, and it was in its nature to dissipate just as fast. Ideally, the reshaping should happen in a matter of milliseconds, as close to instantaneous as possible. He wasn't there yet.

Sasuke gave the ball of lightning-like chakra in his cupped hands a dubious look. 'Misshapen' was a good word for it. It was still recognizable as a sphere, but the bumps were just too obvious.

Staring right into it was starting to hurt his eyes, so he closed them, and tried to feel the sphere instead. It was still his chakra, still in his hands; his mental picture was starting to take form --

"Hey -- stupid fish, don't -- no no no!"

It was a bit hard to keep up your concentration when you had to dodge flying salmon. One millisecond of inattention, and the detonation forced his hands apart, leaving them smarting and a little singed. Below him, on the lower deck of the ship that was bringing them to Water Country, Naruto grinned and tried not to look too guilty. He was still holding the fishing rod that connected to the line in the salmon's mouth.

"Er. Sushi?"

Sasuke had a kunai in his hand in a flash, and in the next, had impaled the still wriggling fish through the gills, without breaking eye contact with the blond.

Of course, Naruto failed to recognize the threat for what it was. "Hey, you better not have ruined the hook! Bukuri-san says I'm not allowed to bum replacements off him anymore."

Scowling, Sasuke flung the fish at his head; to his great regret, it didn't hit, because Naruto lifted the pole just enough to make it swerve off track. The fish kept swinging on its line, though, and Sasuke spent an entertaining minute watching Naruto's every grab for it alter its trajectory.

"You know, if we suspended his instant ramen from the ceiling with an elastic string, that would keep him amused forever," Sakura commented as she climbed on top of the cabin where Sasuke was perched.

Sasuke snorted in wordless agreement.

On the deck, Naruto seemed to be doing an impression of a kitten losing a fight with a ball of yarn, except a little more wet and stinky. Sasuke refused to pay attention to his antics a second longer.

Sakura made herself comfortable at his side, swinging her legs over the edge of the roof. He gave her a long, searching look. She seemed to be feeling okay, but he wasn't sure that meant much. "Still seasick?"

Sakura made a little grimace, legs dangling and swinging nervously. "I don't have anything left to be sick with, I think."

She reached for his hands; Sasuke stuffed them in his pockets. "That's not how seasickness works."

Sakura sighed quietly. "Fine, if you want to be technical, I'm using chakra to stick to the boat and pretending this is a balance exercise. It's not entirely getting rid of the nausea, but it's keeping it down to a manageable level. Now please, may I see your hands?"

"It's nothing worth wasting your chakra on," Sasuke grumbled, but he didn't resist when she slipped her fingers around his wrists and gently tugged them to her.

"It's not wasting much if it really is nothing," Sakura replied with cheerful determination as she healed his singed hands. "There, you see? Already done."

Sasuke rubbed his hands together to get rid of the layer of dead skin. "...Thanks."

"It's no trouble," Sakura replied, still smiling. "Are you still working on spatial recomposition?"

"Mnh." Sasuke frowned and stared down at his hands, and tried again. Ox, hare, monkey -- the ball of chakra was a little more spherical this time, but it went unstable even faster than the previous one had. "Reshaping lightning isn't quite as easy as Kakashi made it out to be," he admitted, frustrated.

"Maybe another shape would work better?" Sakura took his hands to heal them once again. There was barely a scrape this time around, but he didn't protest.

"Like what?" he retorted, and glared at his own hands as if they had betrayed him. If Sasuke couldn't manage to master spatial recomposition before Naruto managed elemental recomposition... Naruto could already cut a leaf in two with his wind chakra; and sure, the two fields were hard to compare, but at this rate, Sasuke was going to lose his advantage, and that wasn't acceptable.

Naruto's upper body popped up in the narrow space between their knees, elbows propped on the edge of the cabin. "Dunno. But not round. I don't know about you, but when I think lightning, I don't think round."

Sasuke twitched. "Didn't ask you for advice."

"Hmm, yes -- legends about the existence of ball lightning notwithstanding, round and static is pretty much the least natural shape for lightning to take," Sakura mused. "You're working against the grain."

"I know that," Sasuke retorted. "But if I can make it round and static, then I can make it into just about anything." At least that was the theory Kakashi-sensei had taught him. Though if he kept progressing at this pace, Sasuke would have no new technique ready for use for the Chuunin exam. And they were due to arrive to the Water Country island on which the exam took place in a half-day, a day at worst. As the exam started tomorrow morning, Sasuke was starting to feel a little pressed for time.

Not that the exam would start without them, even if they were late; Team Seven had escorted Shikamaru to Sand two weeks ago, and it had been more practical to make the trip to Mist directly from the Wind country along with the Sand delegation, than to try to get back to Konoha first. Sure, no one would care if a team of genin arrived late, but Sasuke doubted they'd refuse to give some slack to the Kazekage.

Naruto snorted, pulling Sasuke out of his thoughts. "Whatcha gonna do with a lightning ball, play beach volleyball? I thought the Chidori was supposed to pierce through anything. What's a blunt Chidori good for?"

Sasuke sneered at him. "You can keep cutting corners and cheating with your Kage Bunshins; as for me, I'll master all my techniques properly. That way they'll actually work any time I need them."

"Hey! My techniques work all the time."

Sasuke gave him an unconvinced look, but didn't deign to answer. Naruto just wouldn't ever accept the fact that the only reason his Rasengan worked all the time was because he was lucky. If his Kage Bunshin was destroyed before he could stabilize the attack, or if he was in a space too narrow to manifest two or three more bodies, then he'd be fucked. Sasuke had no problem with anyone cutting corners in a pinch, but Naruto should have worked on getting over his need of that particular crutch instead of settling comfortably on it.

"Your fish is about to escape," Sakura commented innocently. Naruto jerked around to check, and rushed down the deck to keep another struggling salmon in its bucket.

Sasuke sighed, concentrated some chakra in his hands, and started shaping the seals again. "How's your training going?" he asked absently.

Sakura shrugged, hands open in a 'can't be helped' gesture. "Slowly. I can practice holding and releasing my chakra -- my speed is getting better, and so is the amount of chakra I can gather -- but I can't really train properly on a boat, so..."

"Timing still off?"

She sighed. "I think so, yes."

Sasuke hummed a distracted acknowledgement as he smoothed down a bump on his lightning sphere. The cohesion of this one was holding on so far; it was just rather ugly. The internal strain was about to hit critical, though, so he released it, opening his hands to let the chakra detonate without hurting his hands. "First test isn't supposed to need us to fight, though. I'll spar with you."

Sakura blinked wide green eyes at him, startled. "Really? Um, but if I hit you and it works..."

Sasuke shrugged, though he didn't exactly relish the idea. "Then you'll get to work on your medical jutsu too."

Sakura gave him a soft look and a happy little smile he pretended not to see. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun. But I think it would be safer if I just practiced on rocks and trees for the moment."

Sasuke frowned. "As long as you don't break your hand again."

"I can heal that, too."

"Not an excuse," he retorted, and pretended to be paying attention to the sea as Sakura grinned. "... You'd waste too much chakra on it, is all."

He had a feeling she didn't believe him, somehow. Grinning, she leaned forward, elbows on her thighs, chin resting in her hands, and tilted her face into the wind. Down on the deck, Naruto had stripped down to the waist to enjoy the sun, and was in the middle of an animated conversation with an uncharacteristically unescorted Kazekage. Not that Gaara was all that animated, but Naruto had enough blinding grins and shining eyes and wild gestures for two.

He wondered what the two of them were talking about. Apart from their sealed demons, they didn't have a lot in common. Naruto could chat with everyone, but Sasuke had a little more trouble puzzling out why Gaara wanted to hang out with Naruto. It was annoying.

Sasuke crossed his legs, closed his eyes, and tried the exercise again, visualizing a perfect sphere within his mind. All minor setbacks aside, he knew he was slowly getting closer to the trick to properly shaping the lightning-chakra, and he was determined to get there without begging for tips from Kakashi.

Three hours later, when the horizon started to darken with the low clouds that lined the Water Country's shores, his spheres still weren't spherical, but he'd had a little more success with starfish shapes. Lightning-type chakra didn't like straight lines very much either, but still more than it liked spheres.

Quiet, seated at his side, Sakura was practicing moving her chakra in various points of her body -- she said the disruption it caused distracted her from the waiting seasickness.

Gaara had been found by his bodyguards and gone back to another meeting with his advisors, and, alone again, Naruto had come to sprawl across the deck just under Sasuke and Sakura. He would have practiced his elemental recombining, but he'd been forbidden to do it on the ship after one of his uncontrolled gusts of wind almost brought the rigging down, so instead he was playing with his claws. In, out, in, out, bat at dust motes, in, out, bat at dust motes, in, out, in -- what the fuck.

Somehow, Sasuke didn't kick Naruto overboard when the blond latched onto his foot and started to gnaw, but it was a near thing. "... You're chewing on my shoe."

"Arrh. Rar. Your fault. Keep twitching your toes."

"Naruto, you're _chewing_ on my _shoe_." He paused, waiting for Naruto to realize; instead, he felt the pinprick of a fang through the thick cloth. "... Do you even know what I walked through on the docks?"

Grimacing, Sakura leaned over the edge to peer at the blond. "Ew, Naruto, I'm never kissing you again."

Naruto wrinkled his nose and stopped chewing on his ankle, but his hands didn't let go. "Oh, come on, he's gone through so many puddles, 's only saltwater by now."

"Mouthwash," she ordered sternly. "Or no kissing, ever again."

"That's not fair, I don't have any in my things."

"Then find someone who does, or buy some in Mist village, I don't care."

"What if they don't sell any?!"

"Then it sucks to be you, doesn't it," Sakura retorted, sticking out her tongue.

"...Not even a good-luck kiss?

"Not even."

Naruto waggled his eyebrows and leered. "Not even in your naughty places?"

She almost shrieked in disgust. "_Especially not _in my naughty places!"

On the other side of the cabin, Temari burst out laughing. Sakura slapped her hands over her mouth, blushing fiercely. Sasuke didn't care much about what Temari thought; it wasn't like the Kazekage's sister didn't know they hadn't made much use of their separate bedrooms back in Sand Village. As long as she didn't speak about it and embarrass Sakura, it didn't matter much. She could only report it to Shikamaru, and Shikamaru had known for almost as long as they'd been together. It wouldn't help Sakura's embarrassment, though.

"Aw, please, Sakura-chan, this is the last chance we'll get to do it on a boat."

The look she threw Naruto could have dissolved stone.

"Sasuke?" Naruto tugged on his foot. "Come on, when we arrive we'll have to be on our guard all the time, and I know you, you'll never agree to do anything in enemy territory, not even hug."

"You've got that right," Sasuke retorted cynically. "Besides, I'm not relaxing my guard now. This is the ideal moment to make us disappear."

Naruto blinked, startled. "You mean Mist people? Why would they make us disappear? Okay, we've been enemies for ages, but they're hosting this one because they want to be our allies, yeah?"

Sasuke shrugged. "That's what they say. Fact is, they've never needed or wanted allies before. It would be the ideal time to eliminate some choice people." He slanted a look toward Gaara's cabin. "We're far enough from the shore that they could just sink us and wait for exhaustion to do us in. No one can water-walk for so many miles, especially on the ocean."

"My, my, it's good to know you're always on your guard, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke twitched, and shoved at Naruto's shoulder with his free foot to make him let go. Like he hadn't been crowded enough with Sakura at his side and Naruto hindering his legs! Now there was Kakashi perched on the edge of the cabin behind him to complete the set. Sasuke really hated it when the man did that -- which, he supposed, was all the reason Kakashi needed.

"But in this case, there are no reasons why the Daimyo would want us dead. Granted, there might still be splinter groups who disagree with his decisions and choose to take the matter in their own hands..."

"That's reassuring, I suppose," Sakura remarked with a slight grimace.

"Anyway! Come on, it's time to pack up. We'll be there in twenty minutes at most."

Sasuke arched an eyebrow, glanced at the islands in the distance, and figured that either there was some kind of fast current in the area, or there was genjutsu at work.

Sasuke and Sakura jumped off the cabin roof and followed Kakashi down the deck. The Kazekage's entourage was still buzzing around, but Gaara himself was waiting by the prow, his siblings at his side. Team Seven went about getting their belongings back from the cabin, and afterward, since Shikamaru and Kakashi were already standing with the Sand trio, joined them. Gaara was wearing his robes; his sister held the hat. Sasuke wondered if the exam would go easier this time, without Gaara of the Desert as one of the participants. Probably, but he wasn't sure it was a good thing. No challenges worth the name made for a boring waste of time -- and besides he'd often wondered how a rematch would go. He was pretty sure he could beat Gaara now... But of course, challenging the Kazekage to a serious duel was pretty much off the list of things he could still afford if he didn't want the Konoha council to lock him up until he was fifty.

Gaara only gave him the shortest cursory glance before turning his attention to Naruto, who had perched on the railing to peer at the fog shrouded islands, which kind of ticked Sasuke off.

"I wonder how it's gonna go," the blond mused, distracting Sasuke from his annoyance.

"For one thing, we'll probably have fewer rookies this year," Sakura replied, and glanced at Kakashi for confirmation.

"Huh?"

The pink-haired girl frowned, a pensive look on her face. "Well, Mist isn't really known for its gentle weeding out methods. Some years people would send rookies just so they learn what's going to be expected of them during the exam -- the teachers don't expect them to pass on their first try. But this year... I mean, I'm sure the other countries made them sign tons of things to keep the tests reasonable, but..."

"Oh, cool," Naruto retorted, an easy grin on his lips. "The kids I remember from back then would be way too easy."

Shikamaru snorted. "Sakura is right in that there will be fewer low-level, inexperienced participants. But the ones who do participate are going to be strong -- a couple might even be jounin level already."

Gaara nodded slowly, gazing at the island. "It's like my team back then. Stronger, but held in reserve until it could be used. Some villages would do the same."

Naruto gave the redhead a disturbed look. "... But there's not going to be an invasion of Mist this time around ... Right?"

Kankuro snorted. "Who the hell would want to invade Mist anyway? It's just a bunch of rocks in the middle of the sea, full of homicidal, paranoid psychos. No, it's not like that. It's just the first time they're gonna let outsiders in their borders -- maybe the last, too -- and you can be damn sure almost everyone has instructions to report back as much as they can find out. The jounin-sensei will be under strict watch, but the participants might have more freedom to snoop around. And if they want to survive it, they better be strong enough."

"Huh." Sasuke frowned. If that was the case, Team Seven was going to look pretty suspicious. If Mist Village was so paranoid, Sasuke wondered why they were even entering the alliance; but before he could ask, fog suddenly rolled up from the sea, swallowing the ship in a matter of seconds. Sasuke automatically turned to put his back to the rest of his team, a hand on his kunai pouch. There was no noise at all, but when the first Mist nin ghosted up on the bridge, he was ready. There was a whisper of killing intent as the man noticed his reaction and moved to face him...

"Stand down, you three," Kakashi whispered before anything could happen.

Sasuke twitched, but Kakashi was just watching, inscrutable, so he slowly straightened up and relaxed.

"Time for the ship to switch hands, captain," one of the Mist nins rasped out, from somewhere Sasuke couldn't see. He listened, tense and wary, as the ninjas replaced the ship's crew and started directing the ship through reefs no one else could see.

Hn. They could have done with some warning. Sasuke noticed that Kankuro and Shikamaru had visibly tensed up, too, as had a couple of Gaara's bodyguards. At least Sasuke and his teammates weren't the only ones who had been surprised.

He didn't quite relax, not with the lack of visibility and the almost tangible hint of danger in the air. There were a couple of terse orders called, but for the most part the Mist team operated in total silence. The only noises came from the creaking and flapping of the seals, and the hull, which moaned a couple of protests.

And then suddenly the fog tore like wet paper and they were sailing between forbidding dark cliffs that hadn't been anywhere close by only ten minutes ago, and loomed overhead in a way that made Sasuke even twitchier. Someone could drop straight from there onto the ship's deck -- or, even easier, drop other things, like explosive tags or a shower of kunai. There was no way they'd miss, the ship was taking up over half of the channel and there was nowhere to go.

There was a gate at the end, which they had to wait for as it creaked open, and then they were floating in a cove, where a few other ships waited. It was a nice trap, Sasuke thought. Leaving the island must get complicated when you first had to get your ship past the gate and out of there fast enough to avoid every single guard taking potshots at you from above. He wondered if the boats kept to the personal usage of the Mist nins were locked down the same way. Probably not, but finding their private harbors wouldn't be easy.

Team Seven followed the Sand Country delegation up the pier, where important-looking officials started diplomatic banalities with Gaara's sister and his advisors -- Gaara himself having the good sense to look solemn and keep mostly silent. Kakashi guided Team Seven off and to the side, where they sat on a low wall and waited for a guide to tell them where to go. Sasuke could see a few buildings -- warehouses, trading posts, other things he couldn't readily identify -- but nothing that looked like living space. Not the village yet, then, and probably not for a while.

"Team Kakashi, from Konohagakure?" a reedy middle-aged woman with a clipboard asked as she strode toward them. Kakashi nodded amiably. "Papers, please."

The woman stared at the documents with such intensity Sasuke wouldn't have been surprised to learn she was checking out the fiber of the paper for tampering. She gave their faces the same scrutiny; Sakura smiled nervously, and Naruto grinned, which produced absolutely no change on the woman's face.

"Looks in order. Come on."

She guided them toward a paved path that curved around the side of a cliff. Sasuke fell into step with Sakura, rolling his eyes at Kakashi's attempt to strike up a conversation with their unfriendly guide. Naruto took two steps, turned around, and waved wildly at the departing Sand delegation. "Bye, Gaara! See you later!"

The Kazekage paused, looked over his shoulder, and, as his advisors and guards looked properly offended, gave Naruto a little wave in return. The blond looked pleased for two seconds, until he caught sight of Sakura's tense, awkward smile.

"Naruto, you idiot," she whispered from the corner of her mouth. Naruto looked clueless.

"What?"

"Nothing," she grumbled, and slipped her arm into his so she could drag him along more efficiently. Sasuke snorted, and took the rear, keeping an eye on the men shadowing them from the top of the cliff.

"There. You're in B23. Training grounds are up this path. Curfew's from eight thirty to six in the morning. Good luck for the upcoming tests." The woman stalked off, having offered exactly zero change in either tone or facial expression.

Kakashi shrugged philosophically, pushed open the dorm's door, and started looking for their room. "Well then, children -- Sakura, don't strangle Naruto, please."

"But the idiot waved goodbye at Gaara!"

"Wha's wrong -- gghk -- 'kura-chan!"

"What do you think, idiot? Like we need to attract attention to any special link between the Kazekage and one of us!"

Kakashi's eye wrinkled into a smile, and he walked into the room, checking it out casually; Sasuke did his own check, starting from the other end. It contained two bunk beds, a tiny shower stall, and a kitchen corner, and apparently, no hidden bugs.

"A good point in other circumstances -- we wouldn't want to seem more important than we are," Kakashi explained to Naruto, who still looked confused. "Or to look like the Sand and Leaf friendship extends too far. Some people wouldn't trust either of us if they thought they had to deal with both when they only want to deal with one. But it's fine here. Anyone this is going to be reported to already knows Naruto and Gaara are both demon bearers."

"And won't _that _cause problems?" Sakura worried, green eyes darting to the door behind them and the window.

"Funny story, the previous Daimyo would have been assassinated a lot earlier if he hadn't managed to secure the loyalty of the local demon bearer."

Naruto stared at their teacher, eyes wide, and then out of the window, where other genin teams were walking by. "Oh -- so they like us here?"

"Oh no," Kakashi replied blithely, "the civilians here would hate you even more than Konoha's."

Naruto's eyes lost their wide-open hope. Sakura gave him a worried look and caught his hand, squeezing it gently.

Kakashi pretended not to notice. "But then you have to remember that civilians wouldn't like people like Sasuke or Neji much better. The purification wars were over long enough ago that the ninjas would be somewhat more tolerant, but only so far as you prove lethal and obedient enough to counteract the taint of your bloodline."

"Charming," Sakura commented with a pinched little smile. Sasuke snorted. He supposed it was a good thing his bloodline wasn't obvious at a glance.

"To come back on topic -- the demon bearer disappeared eight months ago. Chouka-sama only survived him a week. His successor, Mizukemuri-sama, is much more progressive, especially on the topic of alliance with their neighboring countries. But then it's his only chance to avoid the same fate as his dearly departed uncle."

Sasuke threw his bag on one of the top beds, before Naruto could claim it, and climbed up the ladder. Naruto didn't notice, still standing in the middle of the bedroom, thinking.

"The demon bearer... What happened to him?"

"Ah... We're not sure. No one really knows."

Kakashi waved it off, perfectly natural; Sasuke's instincts screamed 'lie, lie, lie'.

"It's Akatsuki, isn't it."

For a few beats, there was silence in the room.

"I just told you that no one knows, Sasuke."

"But you think it's Akatsuki."

They hadn't had news in so long, Sasuke had started wondering whether they'd been disbanded -- whether they'd been killed. Not that Itachi would ever be killed by anyone but him -- no, he refused to think that. But without Akatsuki to stalk for clues, tracking his brother would be so much harder.

But the Akatsuki was resurfacing. He jumped off the bed to face his teacher, fists clenched. Now the man looked tired.

"Sasuke..."

"_Kakashi_."

"It's possible," Kakashi allowed with a sigh. The man pierced him with a narrow-eyed, scrutinizing stare. "But right now that's not what you need to think about. Concentrate on passing the exam, Sasuke, Naruto."

Naruto stepped toward him, pleading and angry. "But Sensei--"

Kakashi's hand cut the air; stop; be quiet. "Concentrate on passing the exam," he repeated, more intensely, "if only because there's no way a genin would be sent on any Akatsuki-related mission."

"... Yes, sensei," Naruto muttered. Sasuke mouthed the words along with him, without any real conviction.

Kakashi visibly wasn't convinced, but he didn't say anything about it. "I'm going to go meet the neighbors. Try not to roam too far, if you go out."

Sasuke's fists clenched. A couple of steps to the side, Naruto looked about as pleased as he did. Sakura sighed, and stepped between them, taking their hands gently. "Hey... We already knew they were out there, didn't we. Now -- how about we go and check out the competition?"

Sasuke didn't especially feel a need to, not right now; but it was a good idea, and besides he didn't want Naruto to think too hard about that guy who'd gotten kidnapped so many months ago there was no hope left of finding him again.

----------------------------------------

**First Test  
****(Sakura)**

Sakura took exactly seven steps at the bottom of the canyon where the other genin teams waited before she -- or more exactly, her stomach-and-groin area -- attracted her first 'wait, what?' double-take.

She had a moment of paranoia; but Naruto and Sasuke had repeatedly assured her that they couldn't even _see _the bulge she thought she'd noticed in her mirror. (She'd been naked at the time; she wouldn't put lying past Naruto, he had a personal agenda, but Sasuke was the rare kind of man who never flinched at the "do I look fat" question.) She couldn't have gotten a baby bulge in the ten minutes it took to walk out and get to the meeting point; the answer must lay elsewhere. The ninja's eyes looked normal, though... But when he opened his mouth to notify his teammates, Sakura saw that his tongue was forked. She guessed he could taste the air, like a snake. So that was one tracker already, and she hoped his bloodline didn't somehow mimic the venom as well.

"Sasuke-kun," she warned quietly.

Sasuke nodded, giving the forked-tongued guy a quick glance, and went back to his scrutiny of the area once again. On her other side, Naruto strolled casually, fingers laced together behind his head. It had been innocently cocky as a kid; now she thought he was cockily provoking people, and enjoying it beside.

"Oh hey, I see a Konoha headband this way!"

Sakura looked, past a few dozens of strangers whose appearance ranged from harmlessly, hopelessly civilian to -- there was no better description -- total freaks. She could see Rain, Sand, Grass, Waterfall, and even a couple of moon symbols. There was a Moon country now? That was news to her. Ages seemed to range from fourteen to around twenty, older even.

"Heyyy, Konoha guys!"

Rolling her eyes, Sakura followed Naruto, Sasuke right on her heels. At least this time he hadn't challenged the whole assembly.

The Konoha genin were young, Sakura noticed. There was a tall one, but he was still lanky; the little tuft of neither-blonde-nor-brown hair on top of vaguely greenish camo clothes made him look like a reed. The second one was a shrimp, pure and simple, cheeks still a little pudgy, eyes a little awed. The third, the girl, was slender, still not that shapely; but she had a long fall of sleek dark hair, tied at elbow height, that probably indicated feminine pride.

"Hi, rookies. Having fun yet?"

Naruto received a cold, quite unamused Hyuuga glare in answer. "We're not rookies."

Sakura sighed, and elbowed Naruto out of the way. She thought she recognized the girl now. "You're Hinata's little sister, aren't you? Hello." Sakura's first thought was that it couldn't be right, she was still too young for a Chuunin exam -- but she looked to be around thirteen, and Team Seven had been that age. And it _had _been six years since then.

Hyuuga Hanabi gave her a reserved look, but at least she didn't glare. "Yes. You are?" she added, with the ingrained haughtiness of the highborn.

"Haruno Sakura, this is Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto. We were in Hinata's class at the academy."

The reedy boy shouldered his way in front of Hanabi and gave Sakura a would-be suave grin. "Hi there! It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Yamanaka Inoru, and the dwarf is Keu."

Yamanaka, huh? He looked nothing like Ino or her father. Sakura'd never heard of him, but then she'd always assumed either Ino didn't have a big extended family or she wasn't that close with the rest of them, because she never talked about any of them.

"So I take it this isn't the first time the three of you participate in an exam?" the boy asked, grinning winningly.

Hanabi didn't even bother glaring at him -- Sakura almost missed the way her foot moved, just enough for the Yamanaka boy to trip on it.

"Hey! What are you doing!" he hissed under his breath.

"What are _you_ doing?" Hanabi retorted, not even bothering to pretend to be quiet.

"Pumping them for info, duh! -- uh, I mean. Eheh."

Naruto burst out laughing, and Sakura stifled giggles in her hand. "Um... Sorry, this is only the second exam we have participated in. And I'm sure the Fire Country ones are very different."

Hanabi scowled. "Second one? But I remember that guy fighting Neji-niisan back then, what have you been _doing _since?"

Sakura restrained the urge to grimace. "... Oh, this and that..."

The two boys looked interested. Oh, no. What was she supposed to say now? Naruto was scratching his head and grimacing guiltily; no help from that side...

From his stand at her back, Sasuke glanced at the kids, in a way that implied he found none of them worthy of much deeper interest. "Classified."

Hanabi snorted and gave him a glare that seemed borrowed straight from her older cousin's stocks. "Really? Because I was wondering if maybe you've just been doing nothing."

"Hey!" Naruto protested, at the same time Inoru did.

"Hyuuga, don't talk trash to our allies, damn it!"

Hanabi crossed her arms and gave him a glare that Sakura was sure could kill small woodland creatures at twenty paces. "They're not our allies. Or did you forget what the other stages are? We might have to fight them too."

Inoru huffed and crossed his arms, mirroring her position. "Not a reason to piss them off now."

Naruto sighed heavily and made a face at Sakura. "Do you think he's right? No need to piss off our allies now?"

Sasuke snorted. "If we get in a position to need a favor from those brats, I'd rather we just lose."

Sakura gave him a startled look, which turned outright alarmed when Naruto's pouty frown turned into a devious smirk. "Glad to see we're on the same page for once."

And then he grabbed Hanabi by the shoulders, tucked her against his side, and gave her a noogie.

Sakura expected the girl to send Naruto flying with Kaiten, she looked that angry; but apparently she had better sense than to use a secret clan technique in the middle of a gathering of enemies. The elbow she drove into Naruto's ribs was quick and merciless, though, but without the Jyuuken, she was a barely pubescent girl and Naruto a stocky teenager who, just that morning, had taken two of Sakura's rock-shattering punches and gotten back up.

Granted, there had been some whimpering.

"If you're done fondling children," Sasuke drawled.

The blond let Hanabi go and made a face at Sasuke, half-disdain and half-annoyance. "If I'm a pedo, what's that make you?"

Hanabi bristled even more at his carefree loss of interest. Ooh, Sakura knew the type, ignoring them was even more of a mortal insult than actual insults.

"Are there any other teams from home around here?" she asked hurriedly, before another fight could erupt -- between Hanabi and Naruto, or between Naruto and Sasuke, either or; she had a feeling that Naruto was this close to mentioning Orochimaru, and dragging his name in the two idiot boys' fights never ended well.

Hanabi's other teammate, the slightly pudgy one, looked relieved by Sakura's intervention. "Uh, yeah, two. One of them's even older than you -- I think one of the guys is even _married_."

"Oh, really?" she exclaimed dutifully. "That's weird!"

She would be married before the year was out, if everything went according to plan; the thought flitted through her mind, though she tried not to let it stay. She didn't need the distraction now.

Naruto turned toward Sakura and the boys, successfully distracted. "Is the other team Konohamaru's? I haven't seen that brat in ages... They failed last year, didn't they?"

Inoru shook his head. "I hear their teacher kept them home. I think he's scared or something. He's kind of a pansy."

"Aw, crap." Naruto's shoulders slumped. "Would have been fun to have the brat around."

"Ebisu-sensei is not a pansy," Sakura corrected. "This exam is likely to be much more dangerous than they usually are, and they're usually pretty risky as it is."

Hanabi was still fuming; Sakura decided to keep it short. "Well, um, it was nice meeting you, but we're going to see if we know the other teams now, okay?"

Still grinning a slightly painful grin, she dragged Naruto away, following Sasuke through the crowd. Hopefully he knew where they were going, though as far as she was concerned, 'away' was a perfectly acceptable destination. Before they could get very far, a wave of murmurs swept the crowd, and all heads started turning toward one of the canyon walls, where a group of Chuunin perched on a ledge watched the participants. She could see a Jounin there, face covered with a cloth mask that resembled Kakashi's, making his way to the front of the group as he read through papers pinned to his clipboard.

"Huh." His voice wasn't loud, but it resonated through the canyon. '_Good acoustics_,' Sakura thought, and concentrated to memorize everything he was about to say.

"So it looks like our Mizukage-sama managed to wrangle a few concessions out of his 'allies'..." he mused; from the annoyed murmurs around her, Sakura wasn't the only one who'd heard the contempt underlining the word 'allies'. What kind of country was this, where they could insult would-be allies so freely? "Managed to do away with that stupid 'can't get to the third stage without all your teammates' bullshit too."

"He did what?" Naruto was in shock; Sasuke had only arched an eyebrow. Sakura felt her nervousness turn into foreboding. If losing one of their teammates couldn't disqualify people anymore, the second stage was going to be even more vicious than their first time. The only ways to get people out of the running would be to either scare them into giving up, or injuring them past the point they could get back up and keep fighting. Or killing them.

"... Bunch of pussies. Okay! This is what's going to happen for this test. Listen well, I'll only say it once."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto muttered angrily. Sakura took his hand again and squeezed; he needed to actually listen, not listen while brooding about how much he already couldn't stand the guy. It wasn't the Jounin they were going to be fighting.

"There's a cave," the guy drawled, articulating as if talking to a bunch of slightly deaf five-year-olds. "You go through the cave, one team after the other. There's a stone with a secret message engraved on it. You memorize the message. You get out of the cave. And don't worry if something happens to you in there, we'll make sure to move you enough that your bodies won't tip off the next batch."

Sakura swallowed nervously.

Beside her, Sasuke gave a little shrug and crossed his arms casually. "Ibiki did that better."

"Huh?"

"The intimidation routine."

"Oh--" Sakura blinked, and then chuckled. He was right at that, the insulting contempt was a little over the top -- not that it just couldn't be natural for the man, but if he'd been chosen as an examiner, it was for, and not despite, that peculiarity. She was letting her worry about the new settings take over. It couldn't be too much harder, right? It was just the first test, and they'd gone through that one easily at age twelve. They'd go through this one fine, too, Mist-crafted or not.

The examiner started calling out teams by their leaders; when one of the guys protested the order, claiming it to be fixed, the examiner retorted that the Jounin-sensei had drawn lots for their teams; like they had so much time to waste standing around in lines just to get a number, when they were already going to stand around waiting for their turn to go in. Sakura noticed he wasn't actually giving numbers with the teams, and if you weren't counting them on your own and finding a way to determinate who was in the team before yours, you were likely to have to stand around in a permanent state of readiness. A subtle way to mess with their nerves, probably. Sakura was counting, though; they were the ninth team on the list. Not bad. There were about thirty teams after them; they could definitely have done worse.

"Let's find somewhere to sit down," Sasuke said. "There's no telling how far apart they'll let us go in."

Sakura watched the crowd as she followed him. There were some who had gotten the same idea, nonchalantly leaning against rocks or the cliffs themselves; but the rest were still eyeing each other, tense and unwilling to relax. It was the same kind of atmosphere it had been when they'd been kids, but now she could see how many of the participants were putting on airs, trying too hard to look dangerous to cover up their own nerves.

She got three other looks from people as they either caught her scent or, she didn't know, saw through her body or something similar. There might have been more, but in that case they concealed their information-gathering attempts better. It was hard to keep her hands relaxed at her side, to prevent them from covering her still-flat stomach defensively. Her tunic still looked okay, she knew that; but she couldn't help but want to check whether it was pulling too tight around her -- barely -- thickening waist.

"Do you see the other Konoha teams?" she asked Naruto.

"Nope. Maybe they're hiding their headbands, or looking the other way..."

Sakura turned around, to check whether she could find them in the other half of the canyon; nothing. Sighing, she joined her teammates. Sasuke was busy bullying a Waterfall trio off of a prime piece of real estate, a nice little ledge in the sun that wasn't too far off from the mouth of the cave.

"There's no need to make so many enemies before this even starts, you know," she muttered at him; but she perched on the ledge anyway, and bumped him with her leg gently when he leaned against it casually, arms crossed.

It was over an hour before their turn came; she nudged a napping Naruto awake when she saw the team before them disappear inside the cave, and made her way to stand there, rolling her wrists and shaking her fingers to loosen them before she pulled on her gloves.

"About one hour for eight teams," Sasuke mused, "Either there's a time limit of seven to eight minutes, or they don't mind if we run into each other in there."

"Huh. Think we lose if we get passed?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed threateningly. "We won't get passed."

Naruto bristled at the warning. "Don't look at me like that! Like I'm going to let them."

"So why are you even talking about it?"

"Guy, it's our turn." Sakura was almost relieved. Only until she stepped in, though; it went dark and too quiet at the first bend in the tunnel, and she almost knocked herself out on a jutting bit of rock. The ground didn't stay smooth and horizontal much farther in either.

Naruto tapped her on the shoulder. "I'm gonna take point. Just gotta track the other guys, right?"

Sasuke snorted. "Unless they all got lost and failed. Keep your eyes open."

Naruto muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath, but by some kind of miracle, didn't bother retorting. "Whatever. Uzumaki Naruto the Amazing Bloodhound, at your service!"

It was dim, but not enough to make her miss Naruto's reddening eyes and lengthening claws. He started to jog down the tunnel, movements loose and strangely fluid. Sakura followed, trying not to stare whenever he leaned down or to the sides to sniff things. His body language disturbed her a bit -- the sudden, swift movements over and around the rocks, the unselfconscious way he swerved and crouched when he caught a scent. She could have assumed he just felt his teammates wouldn't think him weird for acting like that, but the thought that they _might_ didn't even seem to enter his brain. He still acted human enough -- he wasn't on all fours yet -- but there was something slightly off anyway, and she sincerely hoped she was just reading too much into it.

She'd asked Kakashi why they were training Naruto to be more of a fox, when he was still at risk of being influenced by Kyuubi. Shouldn't he have worked on repressing all those things, to keep the demon safely locked up inside himself?

_'It's going to come out regardless, Sakura. The seal is melding them, forcing Naruto to assimilate Kyuubi. He'll have to deal with the senses and the animal instincts sooner or later -- I'd rather they weren't still associated with Kyuubi no Youko's impulses and memories when that happens.' _

She understood the theory, that Naruto needed to make the harmless parts of the fox his, so that they wouldn't be inextricably linked with murderous intent and a 'humans as prey' mindset. It still seemed somewhat counterintuitive to her -- making Naruto more like a beast so that the beast inside him would leave him alone.

Disturbing, too. Mostly because Naruto didn't even seem to realize how _weird _suddenly acting like an animal was, and she couldn't help but wonder how much this state altered his thought process, if he even realized there was anything different.

But then he'd always been socially clueless, so it was entirely possible that his failure to notice had nothing to do with insidiously losing his humanity.

She could keep her worry for later. For now there was the cave to deal with.

There were some tripwires, suspicious-looking flat stones that looked like pressure plates, a few precariously balanced rocks and incongruous tree trunks, ready to fall on them. There were a few dead ends, a few strange forks in the path -- some of them overhead, that they had to jump into and climb, some cleverly hidden behind rocks, or in shadows. Sasuke's improvised torch made the boulders seem to dance in rhythm with its flickering, which gave the setting a slightly surreal atmosphere; but the traps were so easy to avoid that the wavering light made very little difference, even for Sakura with her normal eyes.

They reached a series of caves, and spread out to check every corner for the inscription. As Sakura had thought, it was hidden in an awkward corner, but it was also engraved on the only boulder that didn't match -- the color was the same, dark gray, but in the middle of a cave full of granite, it was made of much finer-grained basalt.

The inscription they were supposed to learn by heart was only two paragraphs long; Sakura read it three times, Sasuke five -- Naruto didn't bother -- and they were ready to go. So far it was too easy, which meant the test wasn't finished.

Sakura was opening her mouth to remind them, but that was when the cave floor crumbled under their weight.

Sakura had been trained for this; she didn't stop to think. Chakra went to her hands and feet -- but there was no wall to stick to; she grabbed a weight-tipped wire from her pouch, flung it up, hoping it would find something to tangle around and stop her fall. The torch had gone out, flame snuffed by the sudden movement, and she didn't know how far down the bottom was.

Her feet glanced off a sharply inclined surface; she leaned her side into it, skidded down, but the stone was too slick to allow her to entirely stop her momentum. When she hit the bottom, she had slowed down enough that the jarring stop only made her fall into a deep crouch, and not spill on the ground.

The deafening echoes of her own fall and the gravel skittering and rolling under her feet slowly died down, and she realized she couldn't hear her teammates at all. No swearing about pebbles lodged in uncomfortable parts of their anatomy; no soft whisper of sandals on the rocks; no breathing -- save hers.

The hair on the back of her neck prickled up.

She moved, slowly, into a fighting stance, and gathered healing chakra into her hand -- the only one of her techniques that ever shifted into the visible spectrum. The green glow on the gray stones made things strange, made her wonder what kind of dark fluid stained the slide, just out of arm's reach.

It was only when she saw Sasuke's body, crumpled and still at the end of the trail, back and neck twisted at impossible angles, that she realized it was supposed to be blood. Just overhead, faintly twitching hand all but brushing her face, dangled Naruto, with his eyes open sightlessly and a jutting spear of stone protruding from his mangled body.


	14. TW3:Saku:First test end:Naru:interlude

Chapter 2

Many, many thanks to all the wonderful people on my livejournal friendslist who betaread for me and offered advice and plotbunnies when mine faltered. I would have stayed stuck forever without you. :3 (as for the beta it's much better than it was, but I don't know if it's perfect, so don't hesitate to point out any grammar mistakes left. Thanks!)

I'm having some difficulties with the next chapter, as it contains several fight scene and, to be frank, I suck at those so I need to work extra-hard. Also, my plot-bunnies decided that there needed to be another (smallish :crosses fingers: ) sidefic multipart between Teamwork 2 and 3, so I'm writing it and chapter three of Teamwork 3 at the same time. All that to say, don't be surprised if I keep updating slow. By now, it's got to be expected, isn't it? XD;

OH MY GOD IS THAT A M/M/F LIME. It wasn't even planned, what the hell pr0n muses. Well um, hello R rating? I guess. O.o

* * *

**Chapter 2  
****(Sakura)**

_It was only when she saw Sasuke's body, crumpled and still at the end of the trail, back and neck twisted at impossible angles, that she realized it was supposed to be blood. Just overhead, faintly twitching hand all but brushing her face, dangled Naruto, with his eyes open sightlessly and a jutting spear of stone protruding from his mangled body. _

She had to admit, their genjutsu specialist was good. She let the green glow dissipate, joined her hands. "Kai."

When she gathered chakra again, she was unsurprised to find the bodies and the blood trail had disappeared. Note to self : if she ever made such an ambush, find a way to add the cloying scent of warm blood to the tableau -- adding scent to genjutsu was horribly difficult, but there was no rule that said they couldn't hide a freshly sacrificed rabbit around the scene.

She wound the useless grappling wire around her hand, craning her neck to take a better look at the slide through which she'd fallen. Of course, now there was a slab of stone blocking the way, high enough that she wouldn't get any good leverage to move or break it, and so awkwardly angled explosive tags on a kunai would bounce right off and deflect the strength of the blast back down the shaft.

"I guess we're expected to just keep going and leave our teammates behind, hm," she mused -- out loud, to hear her own voice and break the oppressive, sterile stillness of the cave. She started down the tunnel, a hand on the wall, the other hand still haloed in green. "This has Mist nin written all over it..."

Okay, so Sasuke had been on her right during the fall, Naruto on her left, she hadn't twisted around all that much... Presumably, they all had to emerge at the same place at the end of the test...

Right on cue, the wall on her left started shaking. She flattened a hand against it; the vibrations were sharp, short. She'd broken lots of rocks during her training with the Hokage. She hoped it meant what she thought it meant -- that the wall was thin -- cocked her fist, and shoved her whole body into the punch.

The timing of her release of chakra was slightly off; her knuckles screamed in pain. Just a contusion and split skin, thankfully -- no break, no crushed ruin of cartilage and bone slivers. Gritting her teeth, she kicked at the hole in the wall of the cave until it was wide enough to squirm through.

She didn't need her green chakra to see; the tunnel was awash in red-orange firelight.

"Naruto!"

He was still at the bottom of the slide, standing there with his eyes scrunched closed, flickering tongues of red chakra licking up his legs and arms. He mumbled endlessly under his breath -- "Not true, not true, I know it's not true--" but his hands wouldn't complete the release seal. She ran to him, caught his wrist and his shoulder firmly. "Kai!"

The next second, it was dark again, and she was being enveloped in a bear hug that might have broken a few bones if she'd had the misfortune of being a civilian.

"You're alright!"

Sakura hugged back, hard, closing her eyes. He must have been so scared. "Yes."

"--I knew it. From the start! Heh."

"Of course."

"... I'm fine, too," he assured her, voice breaking briefly.

"Mm-hm."

"So..."

Sakura still didn't let go. He needed to feel her right now.

Naruto sighed in her ear. "I know better, too. It smelled all wrong and stuff, but even when I raised my chakra I couldn't shake it off. And all I could think about was how the guy said there was no rule about no killing off people in the exam now..."

She nodded, trying to seem casual. The last thing she needed was him feeling down right now, which would happen if she made a big deal out of his failure. "To keep a genjutsu like that on three people at the same time, the caster is probably very good."

"Heh. ... I suck. Even with Kakashi's training against genjutsu, I keep falling for it."

Sakura tried not to remember in too many details the last time Naruto had fallen for a serious genjutsu. He'd been taken in hook, line and sinker, yes -- and then the pain and despair from believing the illusion had made him go feral on the caster. They'd had to identify the man by his toe prints. It was a good thing he hadn't quite bought into this one.

"Hey, none of that. You have a natural weakness -- just like I have a natural advantage. It happens; you did a good job compensating for it. You would have shaken off a more normal-level genjutsu. That guy was good, really. Besides, with Sasuke and I breaking it, he had more power to throw into yours."

Naruto gave a little unconvinced laugh, and slowly relaxed his hold. "Uh huh. Just gonna go with 'Kakashi's training is lame', I think."

"That works, too," she allowed sheepishly.

Naruto straightened up. "Hey, where's Sasuke?"

"The third tunnel, I guess. We should go get him." She just hoped he was still waiting; he might have decided to take the situation in his own hands by now.

Sakura and Naruto disentangled, a little awkwardly, and she went to kick more chips of stone off the hole she'd made. Even then, Naruto barely managed to wriggle through, and left a few scraps of skin and orange cloth behind.

"Ow."

"Oh, don't whine." She started knocking against the other side, trying to find a place where the rock was thin enough, and he put his ear against the wall to listen for a reply.

"I hear him! He's knocking too. 'O... K... question mark?' Yeah!"

Naruto knocked back a yes.

"Huh. 'S... O... S... L... O... W' -- Hey, fuck you. F, U... Sakura, how'd you make a K again?"

Sakura showed him. On his skull.

"Oww!"

"Like we have time to waste with that!" she huffed, exasperated. "Move aside."

She gathered her chakra. Her hand was healed by now; she tried not to tense in anticipation of the same kind of pain. Tsunade-shishou would get annoyed with her if Sakura let something so silly make her hesitate. She tapped the wall with her fist, lightly, to judge the distance, and then took a step back, and swung forward, targeting what she hoped was the weakest point.

This time, the timing was perfect; the whole tunnel shook, dust and gravel raining down on them. Sasuke was standing in the rubble a second later, and running down the middle tunnel the next second, leaving them befuddled behind.

"Ceiling! Run!"

Oh, crap. Naruto and Sakura rushed after him, deafened by the echo of what seemed like a hundred rocks crashing in the passage behind them.

"Shit," Naruto laughed, panting. "I think we just ruined the test for everyone that was left."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, still Sharingan-red, and strange-looking in the light of the torch in his hand. "They've got Stone jutsu users. How do you think the trap appeared, and the ride down was so smooth? They'll fix it."

"Huh, maybe." Naruto peered at a tunnel branching off the main one, then dismissed it with a sniff that said there was nothing there but stale air and decay. "Still, if the test was whether we'd be able to keep going and leave our teammates behind, then I'm gonna kick some asses."

Sasuke shook his head and checked another side-tunnel. "I doubt it, the Hokage wouldn't encourage that kind of mindset."

"Snuff out the torch! I think I see..." Sakura squinted past the glow of the flames. At first she couldn't catch whatever it was that had attracted her attention, but then Sasuke moved the torch behind him to dampen the light, and there it was, up and through a crack, the light of the outside world. They had to contort themselves to get through. Afterwards, there was another tunnel, but a smooth, clearly man-made one, and one they didn't need the torch to see.

"Woohoo!"

Sakura shook her head, amused, as the two boys started to race to the end of the tunnel. "Slow down! It would be just like them to put traps just before the exit."

There was only one trap, but it was a doozy -- a huge boulder fell off a hole in the ceiling and started rolling toward them, attempting to herd them at the pressure plates on the walls.

Naruto didn't even slow down, just popped out a clone and kept rushing to meet it, Rasengan in hand.

Sasuke didn't slow down either, because with the sharingan he could tell it was an illusion.

Naruto burst out of the cave ready to fight; Sasuke followed more sedately, but from the way she saw him dodge to the side and keep his back to the cliff, he wasn't ready to stand down just yet. She was outside with them a couple of seconds later, squinting in the daylight. They were in another, smaller canyon, with a trio of chuunins in face masks and Mist getups waiting around. One of them was sitting at the edge of a seal pattern, and glared at them briefly as they passed him by to join the main examiner, who was crooking his finger at them.

"The message?"

Sakura recited it, quietly enough to keep from being overheard, clearly enough to make it obvious that she remembered it to the comma. The man grunted, made a note on his clipboard. "Go left."

Exchanging long looks, and wondering when the other shoe would drop, Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura went left. The canyon veered sharply; beyond the bend, a few dozen jounin-teachers waited for their pupils. It wasn't until she saw Kakashi-sensei waiting there with his eye scrunched up in a smile that she breathed out and accepted that they had passed the first test.

"Good job, good job. I'd treat you, but we might miss the curfew."

Sakura eyed the white, cloudy sky. It wasn't even noon yet. "Liar."

Kakashi continued blithely, undisturbed. "Besides, you might want to use the free time to train more. Tomorrow the risks will be a lot more real."

"A lot more?" Naruto gave Kakashi an outraged look. "They were real enough today! Did you hear what that guy said? It doesn't matter if some of us get killed--"

"It's always been that way for the second stage, Naruto. The only change is that now you can still advance to the tournament even if you leave your teammates behind." Kakashi's voice was bland, casually uninterested. But then, they already knew what he thought about people who abandoned their comrades. "The first test has always been for weeding out people who aren't suitable yet -- or at all -- and shouldn't even think of taking the risk."

Sakura stared at her teacher, mystified. "But the examiner said... Oh!"

Sasuke made a face. "I see. He said people who lose their team members can still go from stage two to stage three. He never said it was the same for stage one."

"... What an asshole."

Sakura winced, and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Well... It's part of the test, I guess."

"Still an asshole." Naruto would probably have kept muttering, but the sound of his stomach groaning its hunger distracted him. "And I still think you should treat us, sensei."

He slanted a suspicious glare at Kakashi, who grinned, unconcerned. "Ah, it would be my pleasure! Sadly, I don't have any Water Country money."

"Liar!" Sakura and Naruto yelled at the same time, by reflex.

"He's not lying," Sasuke countered, hands in his pockets; and when they blinked at him, he reminded them, "Water Country money doesn't exist. It's the same currency we use back home."

When Sakura whirled around to yell at Kakashi some more, of course, he had disappeared.

* * *

**(Naruto)**

"Huungry."

Naruto dragged his sandals on the rocky path in what he hoped was a sufficiently pathetic manner. Sasuke and Sakura ignored him utterly, Sasuke focused on keeping watch in case some other Genin team ambushed them for no good reason and Sakura was paying too much attention to silly little flowers that grew in clumps along the edge of the trail.

The sight was gorgeous -- hundreds of tiny purple and white flowers cascading down the rocky slope on one side, a breathtaking view of the sea on the other side. Naruto didn't give a damn. He couldn't eat any of it.

"Huuungryyy..."

Sasuke threw him an unfriendly glare over his shoulder. "Complain to Kakashi."

"Oh, I'm gonna, as soon as he comes back." Naruto was still annoyed about being tricked. Their teacher was an uncaring, black-hearted asshole. "But you bet your ass he's only gonna pop back up after we've eaten, so we can't land him with the bill."

"What did you do with your money? You should have enough left to get some food." Sakura sighed.

Naruto grimaced. "Oh, I got enough left, but it's still not fair Kakashi won't ever treat us. We're his precious students! That cheap bastard."

"You're one to talk about being cheap," Sasuke muttered under his breath. Naruto stiffened and glared at him, but Sakura was in the middle and the path was narrow enough without jostling past her.

"... Besides, I'm hungry _now_," Naruto grumbled insincerely.

Sakura leaned down to tear a root out of the ground and handed it to him. "Here. Chew on that and shut up."

Naruto eyed the dirt-covered root doubtfully. "Uh, Sakura-chan? Are you sure it's even edible?"

"Reasonably sure. Or maybe it will kill you. But either way, _you'll stop whining_."

She cracked her knuckles meaningfully. Naruto shrunk back. "Fine, fine!"

Sighing, he fell back, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he followed after his teammates. There was some mist hanging around the islets and reefs in the water, and a few clouds filtered the sunlight, but after their time in the cave, the day seemed perfectly beautiful. Naruto still felt cold, though.

He watched Sakura's green skirt and pink hair dance with her steps, Sasuke's fingers as he tugged his blue arm-warmers down to cover his hands to the first knuckles, and tried not to remember them coated in red, crushed and pierced through. Sasuke with gaping holes where he should have had eyes, a gurgling mess of intestines and open womb instead of Sakura's belly... He knew it was just a stupid genjutsu, but the caster's attention to detail did more than border on sadistic, it had bought lands there and built its own little mansion.

"... Are we there yet?"

Sakura growled his name as she half-turned around. But before she could slap him over the head, Sasuke answered. "You're in luck. There's the village."

"Finally!"

The path widened as it wound down a slope; Naruto took it as incentive to slip his hands under his teammates' arms and drag them in a mad race toward the bottom. Sakura shrieked, and Sasuke threw a "Hey!"; Naruto just laughed and went faster. They stampeded down to the first buildings together; by the time they managed to brake enough to control their momentum, even Sasuke had a smile on his face. Sakura was giggling and trying to berate him at the same time. It didn't work too well. He wasn't feeling very chastised.

"Win!"

"Who wins?" Sasuke pointed out. "We all got there at the same time."

Naruto secured his hold on their arms and marched down the street. "So we all win."

"Or we all lose."

Naruto sent him a horrible grimace. "Fine, then, I got there first."

The village hid in a hollow that didn't deserve to be called a valley. It wasn't even the real Mist village, Naruto knew, just a sort of tourist area for visiting traders and dignitaries; seeing the number of brand-new buildings at the edges, it probably had never had to house quite so many people before the Chuunin exam. At this hour, though, a good half of the genin teams would still be waiting to pass the first test; the streets looked quite empty.

Naruto marched on resolutely, with a teammate on each arm. Dusty and tired, and did he care? No! He was going to get fed right now.

It was only easy to stomp through the streets when they were empty; when their street landed them in the middle of a group of people, it was harder to keep going side by side, and he had to let go of his teammates. "Damn it, stop blocking the street," he grouched, glaring at the gathered ninjas. "Seriously, what's the -- oh, hey, Gaara!"

The redhead was at the head of the gathering, along with a couple of old Mist ninjas with weird hats. He turned as he heard his name and stared unblinkingly at Naruto. Naruto grinned back. Hah, Gaara was such a freak sometimes, but he didn't care.

"Hey there!" Man, it was easier to get through the crowd when they weren't walking. Some of them were ogling him weird, but he didn't care, opening the way for his teammates.

Gaara tilted his head a little. "Naruto."

"We were about to get lunch, you wanna come with?"

Gaara blinked slowly, and his lips quirked up faintly. Well, Naruto thought his lips had quirked up. "I already ate."

"Oh. Next time maybe. Say, you wouldn't have noticed a ramen stand around here?"

"I don't think there are any."

"What?" Naruto's shoulders slumped. "Well, crap." He patted Gaara's shoulder. "Alright, see you!"

They crossed the crowd, and were almost all the way through the next street when Naruto realized that his teammates hadn't said a word since. He glanced over his shoulder; Sakura was walking with her eyes scrunched closed, and Sasuke favored him with a blank, disbelieving stare.

He came to a stop in the street and turned to face them. "... Guys?"

"Do you even realize," Sasuke said in a measured tone, "that this was an official visit?"

Naruto blinked.

"And now they probably all think you're the most brazen secret agent they've ever seen, and they're going to spend the next three months trying to decode the secret message you just couldn't wait to give to the Kazekage?"

"...Oh."

Sasuke shook his head. "_Oh_, he says."

Naruto winced, shifting his weight from feet to feet nervously. Sasuke arched his eyebrows in a way that utterly failed to be surprised, and gave Sakura a look heavy with meaning; Sakura glanced back at him, eyes heavy-lidded and an odd quirk to her lips; and just as Naruto was about to start dancing nervously and protest that he hadn't _meant_ it, they both started laughing.

Naruto stared at them in bafflement, as Sasuke shook his head, eyes closed, lips quirked up in rueful amusement, and as Sakura slowly bent double, shoulders shaking with uncontrollable giggles.

"... Hey, um."

Sasuke made a muffled sound that had definitely intended to be a snicker, before he'd remembered Uchihas were too cool to have fun.

"Hey!"

Tears of mirth gathered in Sakura's eyes, and her giggles grew louder.

"Sakura-chan!" he whined, and then started chuckling with them, a little chagrined. Alright, so it was pretty funny. And he bet Gaara was laughing his ass off, too. Well, on the inside.

"Let's go get you some food," Sakura said, still chuckling, and since his stomach was about ready to start gnawing through his spine by now, he was all too glad to agree.

They reached the big building they were staying at without having seen any fast-food place. There was a restaurant of sorts, but they didn't have the money. Naruto whined.

"Oh, shut up, we have a rice cooker, don't we?" Sasuke snapped after Naruto's third time wondering shakily if perhaps they had hidden the ramen stand in some other corner of the island as a sneaky kind of psychological warfare. "It doesn't even take a half-hour to make rice balls. You'll live."

"No I won't," Naruto replied pitifully as he dragged his feet down the corridor to their team's dorm room.

"Yes you will," Sakura replied with determination as she unlocked the door and walked in.

Naruto flopped against the doorjamb. "I'll have digested myself by then."

The small room was untouched, traps still in place, Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke's bunk beds more or less made, Naruto's in disarray, a stack of empty noodle bowls abandoned on the tiny sink in the far corner. Naruto stared dreamily as Sasuke dug the rice cooker out of a cupboard, imagining how good it would be if it were full of warm rice right now, and so it came as a total surprise when Sakura stuffed something fluffy and sweet in his mouth. She had her big traveling backpack in hand, and her eyes were narrowed in clear threat.

"Here are my marshmallows. Eat them. Shut up. Oh, and since the rice will take a while to cook, how about you go and take a shower? You're covered in dirt."

Naruto grumbled -- like she could talk! -- but if he retorted anything, he could probably say goodbye to the delicious sugary confection she was dangling under his nose. "Yes ma'am."

Sasuke stood at the sink, washing his hands before he handled the rice. "Good idea. We'll have about twenty minutes while the rice cooks. Get going, I'll join you."

Naruto inhaled the marshmallows at a record-breaking pace, and went to get clean clothes, soap and towel from his backpack. "I'm still hungry," he informed Sakura sadly as he followed her outside of their room.

"I could make you eat my fist," she said with an evil glint in her eyes.

Naruto made sad puppy eyes at her all along the way down the bedroom area of the dormitories and to the wing that housed the communal showers, but she only hmphed and stalked inside the girls' locker rooms. Sighing, Naruto trudged in the boys' side and dumped his things on the bench. He undressed right there in the middle of the locker room; it didn't matter much, the place was utterly empty. He could hear one lone shower somewhere in the row of stalls, but that was it. He stuffed his belongings in a locker, wrapped his towel around his hips, and went to get himself a stall.

The water was warm, though there was no way to turn it all the way up to as hot as he liked it. Naruto closed his eyes and washed the dirt out of his hair and off his skin. He had to admit he'd been pretty much caked in the stuff. But then, rolling around underground and running from a cave-in would do that to you.

The dust had gotten absolutely everywhere. He soaped himself up as thoroughly as possible, working up a thick lather. He was fully ready to do the work himself, but when he heard the other person leaving and Sasuke walking in, he couldn't help but grin evilly.

"Hey, bastard, is that you? My rice better be cooking."

Sasuke grunted. "As if. I'm only cooking mine. You can eat yours raw."

He chose a stall and opened the door; Naruto didn't let him close it. In a second, he had his own door open, and was dragging Sasuke inside with him.

"What the hell --" Sasuke stopped in his tracks when Naruto had to brush against him to close the door. Naruto tried not to smirk too widely. "I got dirt on my back, mind giving me a hand?"

When he turned around to face the shower, he more or less expected Sasuke to insult him and storm out. Instead he got a lot of silence. Naruto bit his lip hard to keep from laughing his ass off, and bowed his head casually to rub soapy foam out of his wet hair.

"So, are you going to help me or not?"

Sasuke took in a deep, hissing breath -- and then there was a hand pulling on Naruto's hair and a hand shoving him against the wall and the water faucet.

"Ow! So rough." Naruto laughed, even though he wanted to turn around and try to force Sasuke against the wall right back. Fighting right now would have meant losing. Because Sasuke was the one losing control, so that meant Naruto won.

He wasn't sure if it still counted as a win if Sasuke lost enough control to give him some surprise bumsex right there. And when Sasuke's hands landed on his shoulders and started rubbing downward, he couldn't help tensing up a little. Shit, but that felt nice. But, er. Soap as lube was probably a bad idea, and -- gack.

"Um. Er...?"

"You were the one who wanted your back washed," Sasuke growled in his ear.

Naruto's breathing sped up a little, expecting a quick nip, a kiss maybe -- though Sasuke's kisses tended to be bites by default -- but he only got more vigorous back rubbing, all the way down to the small of his back and then back up. Sasuke gave the back of his head a tap to make him bow it, and let the water sluice off his shoulder blades for a few seconds. Naruto closed his eyes briefly, wondering if Sasuke was watching him.

"... Like what you see?" He couldn't help but laugh a little, because it was better than sounding too serious; that earned him some sudden hair-washing that was closer to an annoyed noogie. "Oww oww oww! Damn it, Sasuke!"

"Stop yelling. Do you want everyone who comes in wondering what's going on in here?"

"Like they're not gonna wonder when they see two pairs of feet under the door."

Sasuke snorted and pushed Naruto's head down under the spray to rinse off the soap. "There are suspicious situations, and then there are sadomasochist situations."

Eyes scrunched closed against the water, Naruto laughed. "I'm telling everyone at home you have a sense of humor."

"Hah. They'll never believe you," Sasuke said, in the same way he would have answered an enemy's attempt at blackmail.

Naruto was still chuckling as he straightened up and turned around. "Okay, thanks. Your turn now."

He couldn't help a fast glance down Sasuke's body, but Sasuke was quick to take his place under the shower, and Naruto couldn't actually judge how much the bastard had been affected.

The blond tried to think icy, blizzardly thoughts as he soaped up Sasuke's back. He never looked very bulky, but that was because his muscles were compact, sculpted tight on a lean frame. And seeing him like that, with white foam drifting down wet planes and hollows, being allowed to run his hands all over him... Gnh.

"You know what we should do?" Naruto commented lightly as he rinsed the soap off Sasuke's back.

Sasuke grunted, prompting him to continue.

"We should go ask Sakura if she's got enough shampoo to spare. Because your hair deserves the best."

Sasuke kicked back, making Naruto yelp as it connected with his knee. He had to grab at the walls of the stall to keep from slipping on the wet tiles.

"Naruto..." Sasuke growled, starting to turn around.

Naruto cheated; he stepped closer to him and kissed his shoulder, knowing it would make Sasuke feel weird enough that he'd stop in his tracks.

"I really like washing your back. I wanna wash her back too. Then I'll feel less guilty if sadomasochistic things do happen." There was a little curl of soap, on the upper part of Sasuke's chest; Naruto rubbed it away with his palm, and it just so happened that his fingers brushed a bronze-colored nipple on the way down. "Because I feel really sadomasochistic right now," he added, whispering against Sasuke's wet skin.

Sasuke took in a sharp breath. Naruto grinned, and threw the door of the stall open. Holding Sasuke by the wrist, he stalked out of the showers and into the men's locker room. Sasuke scrambled after him, swearing and fighting with the towel he'd just had enough time to snatch off the hook on the door.

"Put that on!" Sasuke hissed, whapping him over the head with another towel.

Naruto peeked around the corner, throwing a quick glance down the corridor that lead toward the women's locker room. "What for? If they see us, it's gonna be bad with or without towel."

"... Just do it."

Smirking, Naruto complied, wrapping it snugly around his hips. He couldn't help but wriggle them a bit when he caught Sasuke glancing down.

"Hahaha. Oh yeah, you _want_ me."

Sasuke growled and reached for him; Naruto dodged into the corridor of feminine mysteries. If there were any girls getting changed, it was going to end badly. So far he hadn't seen anyone on this island that went anywhere without weapons.

Sasuke followed, making faces that Naruto knew meant 'what the hell am I doing here again?' Naruto grinned until his cheeks hurt, making an effort not to laugh out loud. Uchiha Sasuke, sneaking around a women's shower room! Oh, he was going to hold this over Sasuke's head forever.

The noise of feet on wet tiles made Naruto dodge behind a row of lockers; Sasuke darted after him, utterly silent, and they stopped breathing as a locker just on the other side was opened and cloth ruffled. Then there were sandal-on-tiles noises -- quickly, they sneaked down toward the showers. Naruto threw himself down on all fours and looked quickly at the stalls. No one, no one -- ah, feet! -- but not Sakura, no one, no -- hohoho, there she was, at the very end of the row. He pointed toward the other occupied stall at Sasuke, made a shushing motion, and ghosted down the corridor toward Sakura's stall. Rolling his eyes and holding his towel firmly at his waist, Sasuke followed.

Naruto was about to climb over the door when Sasuke stopped him. _'Idiot_,' he mouthed, even as he scratched a quick 'friend, quiet' rhythm on the door. Oh right, maybe Sakura wouldn't kill them on sight.

Bah, living dangerously was so much more fun, Naruto thought as he jumped up, caught the top of the door and climbed over. Sakura was pushing wet hair away from her face, frowning, and her eyes got huge when she saw Naruto appear. When Sasuke landed at his side, her jaw dropped a little, too. Naruto grinned widely and waved.

'_Wash your back?_'

Sakura's cheeks went a very fetching crimson, but then it might have had less to do with the offer and more to do with the fact that he'd forgotten to hold up his towel. Oops.

She tried to cover herself with her hands and mouthed something back that was probably "You're crazy" or the like. Naruto chuckled quietly and picked up the shampoo bottle from the corner of the stall where Sakura had stashed it. His ass brushed against Sasuke and his head against Sakura's arm. The stall really was barely big enough for one person, much less three. He straightened up and winked at Sakura, trying to be encouraging. It was hard to hit on her properly when he wasn't supposed to be heard.

Behind him, Sasuke watched, arms crossed over his bare chest. The corner of his towel was tucked neatly in; it gave off the impression that he could dance with it and it wouldn't even wrinkle. Annoyed, Naruto grabbed a corner and yanked it off. Sasuke stiffened and glared at him, but a quick nod toward the other occupied stall had him simmer down.

Naruto uncapped the shampoo bottle and took a sniff. It didn't have much of a scent; he knew they couldn't afford it out in the field. There was still a hint of flowers in there, common enough that they'd pass unnoticed just about anywhere. He arched an eyebrow at Sasuke and pointed at his hair, then looked at Sakura. Who did what to who?

Sakura shrugged back helplessly, frowning like she didn't fully get what he was trying to communicate. Naruto gestured more.

Sasuke snorted softly and plucked the bottle of shampoo out of his hand. Scowling at first, Naruto watched him closely as he poured some in his hand. The scowl disappeared when Sasuke brushed against him to stand in front of Sakura and reached for her hair.

Sakura looked up at Sasuke as he slowly rubbed the shampoo in her wet hair, her eyes still a little wide, a little shocked. Naruto watched them for a few seconds, eyes softening. As much of a sharp-tongued, pitiless bastard as he was, it always surprised Naruto how gentle Sasuke could be with Sakura when the mood took him.

Sakura wasn't moving, standing with her arms curled up in front of her chest, staring into Sasuke's eyes in wonder. It hurt a little in Naruto's chest that she never looked at him like that. It hurt a little more that even now she was so hesitant to reach back, even when Sasuke reached first. So Naruto reached for her wrist, fingers circling it, and gently pulled her arm away from her body, and placed her hand flat on Sasuke's chest. When she looked at him in confusion, he produced a bar of soap, and winked again.

Sasuke's amused half-smirk was enough encouragement. He glanced at Naruto, his hands buried in wet pink strands. "Going to keep watching long?" he whispered.

Naruto chuckled soundlessly. _'Nice to look at?_'

Sakura looked at him, too, her hands still flat on Sasuke's chest.

God but they were gorgeous together -- Sasuke's trim body, Sakura's slender waist; his corded muscles, the flare of her hips. With their hair wet and hanging in their faces, it occurred to Naruto that they had about the same hairdo; Sasuke's hair was just more stubborn in its fight against gravity.

He stepped closer, slipped his arms around their waists, pulling them closer. His. His Sasuke-bastard and his Sakura-chan, all naked and wet and soapy and his.

Sakura sighed softly and leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder for a few second. Naruto kissed her forehead, a soft smile on his lips. Without a word, Sasuke poured some shampoo in his hands and started to wash Naruto's hair, startling him. Sasuke looked thoughtful, concentrated on his task, not mocking or annoyed, and so Naruto let his eyes close in pleasure and sighed. They were all touching each other, and all that slick, wet skin in his arms and against his body, it was marvelous.

"You're crazy," Sakura whispered very quietly against Naruto's neck.

Naruto grinned. "Nah, we'll be fine."

She glared half-heartedly, but Sasuke was starting to wash her chest; Naruto forgave her for getting distracted. Also, it answered one of his big existential questions -- Sasuke _did _like breasts. At least Sakura's breasts. He cupped them and rubbed them in small little circles; Naruto couldn't look away. Sakura was breathing fast.

He listened as the other woman left the shower room, and grinned widely. "And it looks like we're alone now..."

Sakura made a face, half-annoyed, half-flustered. "The rice will burn--"

"There's a timer," Sasuke countered, and leaned down to kiss her.

Naruto's hands slid down two spines, following very different curves, and his mouth found Sasuke's shoulder again. Sasuke shivered against him and slipped a hand behind his head to tangle his fingers in short blond locks. He was still kissing Sakura, his thumb rubbing against a pink, puffy nipple.

Of course, Naruto had been so busy listening to the panting and caressing the two bottoms he had in hand that he only realized they weren't alone anymore when Sakura's moaning prompted a sudden pause in noises he hadn't even consciously registered.

A pause mid-step. Some shuffling... And then there were muffled giggles. Sakura's eyes opened wide in shock. The voices sounded young, maybe fourteen.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed warily and he climbed up, his feet pressed to one side and his back to the other side to keep his leg from being visible under the partition. Naruto grimaced. Quick thinking. He was right, three people in one stall would look pretty bad no matter how you swung it.

Now the girls were talking more loudly, pretending they didn't have a clue what was going on there, while making silly double-entendres and drifting closer to Sakura's stall. Sakura looked mortified and well on her way to getting furious.

Naruto didn't see a hundred solutions. Sasuke was already up in the corner, ready to dart out at the first opening -- but someone still needed to give him said opening. Naruto picked up his towel and reached for the stall door. Sakura flailed silently, not sure if she should hold him back or shove him out.

Naruto grinned at her over his shoulder, and shaped a quick hand seal.

Poof.

"Hey, girls," smiled Naruko as she wrapped her too-short towel around her generous curves. She tossed long, wet golden hair over her shoulder, and winked at the ringleader of the teenagers, a blue-haired girl with intricate tattoos in interesting places. The girl blushed; Naruko smiled a pouty little smile and waved at her -- for the sole purpose of distracting the pack as Sasuke made his escape, honest -- before strutting out of the shower room, and then out of the locker rooms entirely.

He was still dripping wet and wearing only a towel, but seeing as the giggling girls had to have teammates, who were probably invading the men's side right now, Naruto was sure his clothes could wait in his locker a little while longer. Smiling vapidly, hips swaying, Naruko made her way down the corridors and back to her room, leaving behind her a trail of incriminating droplets and dumbstruck male stares.

All in one, apart from the case of blue balls he would get when he turned back, they'd gotten out of trouble in a rather slick way. Sasuke just had to look unconcerned and mingle with the guys in the locker room to get his clothes back without questions, and...

... Sure, Sakura was going to pass for a lesbian, when she got around to crawling out of the stall. But there were worse things for one's rep than to have their rug munched by his gorgeous girl-self. Right? Yeah.

... Shit, he was going to die.

Maybe he ought to eat before his teammates got there, so he could die with a little food in his stomach. Naruto hurried to the door and pushed it open --

Kakashi was sitting at the table, the rice cooker open, chomping contentedly on a rice ball scooped directly out of what had been intended as _Naruto's _meal. Well, Naruto and Sasuke and Sakura's.

The nerve of that guy! "Kakashi-sensei!" he spluttered angrily, flailing his arms in shock.

The towel was really tiny, and Naruto had never been good at making knots that lasted. And his boobs wanted to be free.

Flop, made the towel as it slipped down long girl legs and landed around his feet.

"Nice outfit," Kakashi commented casually, and picked up another rice ball. "Maybe you should step in and close the door, hmm?"

"_NAAARUTOOOOO,"_ came a snarl from the corridor.

Kakashi casually leaned back in his chair and turned a page of his book. "And then again, maybe not."

* * *

**The next day  
(Still Naruto)**

The ferry going to the Survival Test's peninsula was full enough that Naruto kind of wondered how it didn't tip over. The first test had cut out a lot of the participants, but there were still more than enough teams on the boat to make it feel a little crowded. And here Sakura and Shikamaru had been so sure there wouldn't be many people this time around.

The second test would still happen on the same island as the first; but from Kakashi's quick explanatory map, Naruto had gathered that the island was roughly eight-shaped, and there was some kind of wall at the most narrow part, preventing people from crossing. It was alright by him; it meant they couldn't just walk there, and _that _meant a boat trip. The semi-permanent mist was gone, and the combination of the sunlight and the spray from the waves made the trip really quite pleasant. Naruto's jacket was tied to his waist, leaving him in his fishnet top; he could see that he wasn't the only one who'd had the idea to shed a few layers of clothes -- that, or Grass and Sand's sense of fashion really needed to spread to Leaf.

He would have felt guiltier if he hadn't caught Sakura sneaking glances at a loincloth-wearing pretty boy from Stone. As it was, though... Well, it was her own fault for being too cross at him to give him even one little kiss -- just because some girls from Rain now thought she was a lesbian, why did it matter, lesbians were awesome. She'd gone trailing after Sasuke when the guy decided to go check out god-knew-what in the shadowy depths of the ship. Naruto was content to stay in the sun and do some, um, sightseeing.

And what a sight the deck's crowd was.

_'... I'd hit that. Oh yeah, and that one too. This one... Hmm, maybe.'_

_/She'd only be good as a toothpick./_

Ghhk.

_'What the __hell are you paying attention for?!'_

Kyuubi shared a ripple of feeling like a lazy yawn. _/Bored. Look again./_

Mildly disturbed, Naruto complied. Being aware that the fox was there with him, looking through his eyes, made it a little harder to enjoy. It wasn't like Kyuubi could get out, though, even if he tried -- and he wasn't trying. Kyuubi didn't even feel particularly restless, which was kind of strange to Naruto; the fox was rarely noticeable when he had no anger to vent and no potential sex or violence to watch unfold.

But if Naruto asked again, Kyuubi would only reply _/bored/ _a second time and that would be it. Like the fox ever bothered explaining himself! Naruto didn't especially feel it was worth the headache he'd get if he tried to force the answer out of him.

There weren't a lot of girls, comparatively speaking; it was kind of sad that most guys still left him cold, because they tended to be less shy about undressing a bit.

-- Oh man, _hot_.

_'Wow. Niice,_' he thought as a busty girl with a neckline so plunging it unveiled her bellybutton sauntered past. He'd definitely do her. Well, if he wasn't shacked up. And if she were available. And interested. And her teammates weren't lugging around clubs the size of two Narutos. Details, details.

_/Looks fleshy./_

_'Hee, yeah, fleshy, that's a good word for it -- uh.'_ Naruto's goofy daydreams faltered, darkened by a horrible suspicion. _'...Kyuubi?'_

_/Could feed for a whole week on that much meat./_

A heavyset guy tapped Naruto's shoulder. "You okay, man? You look a little green. Try to aim over the guardrail, 'kay?"

Naruto gave him an awkward smile and hurried off, getting the vague feeling that he'd gotten himself marked as a target by anyone close enough to notice his bout of seasickness. _'You asshole! You killed my hard-on. I was trying to get a nice fantasy going there, and you -- urgh.'_

_/Now __**this**__ one I would fuck./_

Naruto forgot to berate Kyuubi in his hurry to pinpoint who had caught the fox's attention.

A long mane of fawn-colored hair that made like a living pelt -- like a tail, almost, swishing with every quick, decisive movement its owner made; and an easy, practiced grasp on a strange handheld weapon that curved around the hand and protruded over the knuckles like a set of serrated claws. Okay, he could see the appeal. If you were a psycho, violence-loving, undiscerning canine_. '... That's a guy.'_

_/So what? Not trying to breed./_

_'He's got a __**beard**__! Urgh. You've got no taste. How 'bout this one? She's kinda wild looking, too, isn't she -- and she's actually pretty. Great legs!'_

_/Diseased. She spread them too often. Dip your dick in that at your own risk./_

_'How the hell can you tell anyway -- wait, don't tell me, not sure I wanna know.'_ Naruto redirected his attention on a slender girl with long black hair in a tail, a katana in hand; she gave him a dismissive look from underneath her wide-brimmed hat and then ignored him superbly. _'This one's kinda pretty... Kinda squinty-eyed, but nice lips.'_ Kyuubi didn't even deign to reply; vaguely peeved, Naruto insisted. _'Come on, she's got a nasty glare and pointy weapons, you should be all over that.'_

_/Bah. __Good chase, but barely snack-sized./_

Naruto seethed. _'Stop talking about eating people already, asshole.'_

Kyuubi smirked in the dark. _/I meant her packmate's cat./_

_'... That's it, I'm not talking to you anymore. Go back to your hole and be bored, I don't care.'_ Naruto stomped ahead, like he could actually leave the fox behind. Argh! He needed to find someone to chat with, so he could stop futilely trying to do the guy bonding thing with a goddamn fox demon.

When he caught a glimpse of a leaf symbol on a headband, he was over there in a flash. He would have welcomed even that little brat Hanabi.

It wasn't her team; it was one of the two others they'd never gotten to meet during the first test.

"Oh, hey, I didn't know they made teams with three girls."

The trio of sixteen-year-old Konoha genin sitting on the guardrail gave Naruto a long glare he could only describe as annoyed and weary. What had he said now? He scratched his head, confused.

"Uh, sorry," he apologized, just in case, and tightened his grip on the guardrail when the ferry lurched in the waves. "Everyone says the same thing all the time, don't they?"

The one with the sleek, smoke-gray hair down to her ass glared at him, and the curvy blonde rolled her heavily made-up eyes, a smirk on her pouty lips. "Juuust a tiny little bit. It was only hilarious the first twenty-seven times."

"Okay, my bad -- hilarious?"

The tall, Amazonian brunette grunted, and shifted her spear from one solid shoulder to the next. "Mostly it's the fact that there's only two girls on this team."

"--Oh." Naruto stared at the trio, caught by surprise. They were all dressed kinda girly to him. A pink skirt for the blonde, an embroidered and flowing top for the gray-haired one, and the brunette had on very short shorts. Blondie had cleavage, and gray-hair's face was way too delicate, even with that heavy scowl. Naruto stared up at the brunette and gave her -- him! Him! -- a disarming smile. "Sorry?"

The blonde one snickered. "... I lied, it's still hilarious."

"Oh, fuck you," the grey-haired one snapped.

In Naruto's head, Kyuubi laughed. The rest of his response was graphic, hinting strongly that he had no problem taking up grey-hair on the offer; Naruto reddened as he finally understood.

"Wait -- you're a guy?" He gaped at Gray-hair, and turned to Brunette, already wincing. "And you're -- oh man, I should have known, you've got too much hips to be a guy and -- argh, wait, I'm not saying that you're fat, I --"

The guy with the long, sleek gray hair was watching him with narrowed eyes, the kind of look that heralded imminent, painful revenge. The tall girl with the spear had no expression at all, which seemed almost worse in a way. Naruto grinned painfully wide and took a cautious step back.

"...You're both very pretty either way?"

The brunette arched an eyebrow, and then she chuckled, more patiently amused than offended.. "Thanks. It's fine, I tell myself it's not that I look like a guy, it's that it's hard to look girlier than he does."

"Beni, one of these days I'm going to _hurt _you." Grey-hair-prettyguy turned to look at Naruto, looking like he'd found something stinky stuck to his shoe. "Just for the record, I'm straight."

Naruto flailed his arms. "I'm straight too!"

Kyuubi was still laughing at him. _/Does the ice-bitch know?/_

"Uh -- wait, I'm -- I mean, I like _hot_ girls and you only _look_ like a hot girl and -- argh! That came out all wrong."

The curvy blonde, who'd been watching the last bout, chuckled and waggled her eyebrows at him. "Yes, coming out in the middle of a chuunin exam has got to be pretty wrong, as far as appropriate places go."

"I didn't -- hnn."

Naruto whined; pitying him, she patted his head. "Aw, poor guy. Jin-kun, leave him alone already, it's not his fault he's got good taste." She turned to Naruto, and grinned. "My name's Kigane," she said; Naruto blurted out his name in answer. "Don't listen to Jin, he secretly likes to flaunt it."

Naruto would have believed it, what with all the bangles on the guy's arms and the flowing scarves. He wore _lavender_ tops, for god's sake, how could he not mean it?

"I damn well don't," Jin snapped anyway.

"He's just stressed because of the exams, is all." Kigane patted Naruto's shoulder. "You don't look very stressed at all; are you that strong?"

"Eh. Eheh. Yeah, I guess. We went through the survival test just fine the last time we passed it. Just got unlucky and couldn't finish the tournament. It was the year Sound attacked, so..."

Kigane's eyes -- a very pretty blue-green, he noticed -- widened in shock, and her lips parted slightly. Naruto couldn't help but glance at them, somewhat guiltily.

"Wow. That's _cool_. Did you fight during the invasion? We would have, but we were still at the academy, and -- well. We didn't see any action." Kigane pouted, tugging on a golden curl peevishly.

A few steps away, even Beni-the-brunette and Jin seemed to be paying attention, and Kigane's enthusiastic curiosity and obvious admiration made Naruto straighten up a bit. "We did. Went personally after the team of infiltrated Sand genins who'd been in the exams, as a matter of fact."

"Ooh...!"

_/__What a ten colors bitch./_

Naruto blinked, cut off just before throwing himself in a grand retelling of his exploits, cautiously edited of anything demon-related. Usually, Kyuubi's interruptions made more sense than that. _'What?'_

_/Blonde bitch has a litter of ten different colors./_

_'--Kigane? She's about sixteen, she doesn't have any kids yet -- especially not ten of them!'_

Naruto could feel Kyuubi snorting in contempt. _/Kitsune saying. Kind of vixen whose litters turn out to be from ten different fathers, but canny enough to get them all hunting to feed her anyway./_

"Naruto-kun?" Kigane tilted her head and peered at him curiously, before waving her tiny hand in front of his eyes. "Helloo. Anyone home?"

"--Ahh, sorry." Naruto grinned, and secretly berated Kyuubi for being an asshole. So she was a bit of a flirt, so what? He didn't mind that. It was so rare when a pretty girl wanted to flirt with him! It wasn't like he'd ever cheat on Sakura and Sasuke. The attention was nice, that was all. "Uh, What was I saying again?"

Kigane giggled, teasing him, but not cruelly. "You were going to tell us about the time you fought those Sand nins." She poked his shoulder. "So? I want to hear the story!"

"You'll hear it another day."

Naruto started. He hadn't heard Sasuke coming; but there he was, standing at Naruto's shoulder and looking displeased. The way he scowled at Naruto, Naruto knew who he was most displeased at. Sakura was standing behind them, and smiled politely at the group, but it was the polished, "I am a civilized being, really" smile; not any kind of sincere one.

"Hello! We're Naruto's teammates. Sorry, we'll have to take him back now. We have to go and say hello to the last Konoha team before the ferry lands..."

Jin shrugged. "Don't bother, they're assholes."

Beni-the-brunette gave him a heavy-lidded mocking look. "You're just sore because they hit on you."

"You're sore because they _didn't _hit on you. No one ever does."

_/Can say he's not female as much as he wants, he's as catty as any bitch. Too many females, got to his brain./_

Sakura still smiled politely, though now it looked a bit like a wince. "We should still at least say hello. It can't hurt. Well, it was nice to meet you!"

She waved, and turned around to leave. Naruto was still hesitating when Sasuke's hand clamped down on his shoulder to push him along.

"Ow!" he protested, as soon as they were out of earshot. "What's gotten into you?"

Sasuke gave him a quick, exasperated look. "I know what you would have gotten into."

Naruto blinked. Had Sasuke really just implied -- did he really think -- _what_? "Fuck you. I thought Jin was a catty bitch for a guy, but you're even worse."

Sasuke's eyelid twitched.

"Guys -- we're being watched, remember?" Sakura smiled, not in a friendly way. "The first one who throws a punch, I will throw overboard."

Naruto would have been alright with her warning, if she had glanced at Sasuke even for an instant before she stared at him meaningfully. But no, just him, of course. He huffed, cheeks puffed up as he gave Sakura a sulky look. "Why are you two so twitchy? I was just chatting." Now he was starting to feel mildly guilty. "It wasn't -- I mean it was really just chatting."

Sakura's expression darkened, suddenly a lot more displeased. "I assumed it was just chatting. Are you telling us it really wasn't?"

"What? No! I'm saying the other way around! Why are you hearing wrong?"

"I'm hearing that you're protesting a little too much," she retorted, glaring.

Naruto stopped walking and stared at the deck guiltily. "Okay, so maybe she was flirting a little and I let her. It wasn't so bad, was it? It wasn't anything solid, she didn't say 'let's hook up' or anything."

He glanced at Sasuke for support, but Sasuke glared at him, too.

"She wasn't going to, idiot."

"Hey, don't call me idiot! You didn't even talk with her, anyway, so what do you know?"

"Naruto," Sasuke replied with fake patience, "I don't _need _to. They're a team comprised of a pretty boy from a strictly spying-oriented bloodline, a girl with no calluses and a lot of cleavage, and a weapons specialist flashing too much thigh. It should be obvious."

Naruto growled in frustration and threw up his arms. "_What _should be obvious?"

"They're an espionage and infiltration team. They're not ninja, they're goddamn _kunoichi_."

Naruto blinked. "Uh -- what? What's the difference?"

"The difference is their training isn't geared toward frontal assault, but toward backstabbing, poisoning, and leading people to their doom by the balls." Sasuke gave him an irritated glare. "Looks like she had a good hold on yours, too."

Naruto's cheeks burned. "What the fuck is your problem, are you jealous or something?"

Sasuke visibly bristled, taking a threatening step forward; Naruto stood his ground. Sakura winced and quickly insinuated herself between them, her hands on their shoulders to keep them apart. "Guys, please -- _guys_, Kakashi-sensei told me to thump you if I needed to. Remember? We can't afford it right now. So don't make me -- please -- _Sasuke-kun_, I swear I will."

Sasuke huffed and turned away, arms crossed defensively. Naruto's figurative hackles slowly came down. At least this time he wasn't the only one being treated like a misbehaving kid.

Trying to look good for the competition, Sakura gave a little wincing smile, which did a horrible job of hiding the way her eyelid twitched in anger. Naruto scowled at the deck, and tried to make his lower lip stop jutting out. He wasn't going to be _pouting_ over it.

"...Sasuke-kun, Naruto was just making friends, he had no way to guess."

Sasuke snorted in dismissive contempt; Sakura gave a tired sigh but apparently decided not to push it with him.

"Naruto... It's okay, just remember next time." Sakura gave him a tired smile. "That type of team is at a disadvantage in all-out fighting, so they'll usually try to gain an edge before the fighting starts -- they're gathering intelligence to find people's weaknesses. It's -- no one's going to fall for a classical 'poor girl who twisted her ankle, please protect me, you handsome stranger' attempt, right? It might work in a real-life situation, but not in an exam -- we all know everyone is a ninja."

Naruto gave her a sour look. Now he felt positively stupid. They'd been nice, and they were from Konoha too, and he'd just--

_/Eh, who cares what they wanted. Got the bitches fawning over you, who cares if they didn't mean it. You're strong enough to make them put their cunt where their mouth is./_

Naruto did a full-body twitch. _'Nrgh -- mental picture --my brain -- really, really hate you.'_

Somewhere deep in his mind, Kyuubi _smirked_ at him again.

_'Not a rapist, damn it. Also__, I'm pretty sure that's not how the saying goes.'_

_/That's how it goes for __**me**__./_ And that was all the fox-demon cared about. Kyuubi in a nutshell, really.

Naruto sighed heavily and slumped against the guardrail, staring dispiritedly at the sea below. Being so pitiful that Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox-demon himself, offered what could be construed as _support_ -- in a very twisted, bastardly way, of course -- only made him feel even worse.

"... Naruto?" Sakura sighed, and patted his shoulder. "It's okay, you're not the only one it ever happens to, I mean, it's only their job!"

"Yeah?" Naruto muttered, unconvinced. "When's the last time you fell for something like that?"

Sakura twirled a lock of hair around her finger nervously. "Um. Er. I guess... Kabuto?"

Naruto flailed his arms in a brief explosion of frustration. "That doesn't count! Everyone trusted him."

"I didn't."

Naruto glared at Sasuke, who now leaned nonchalantly on his elbows facing the sea.

"That's because you're a paranoid bastard! I don't want to always think that everyone who smiles at me is thinking of the best way to stick a knife in my back. It's not a way to live."

"It isn't?" Sasuke countered coldly. "I find it's a great way to not get killed."

Naruto growled at him, an animal threat rolling out from deep in his throat. At his side, Sakura froze.

"Naruto..." she whispered.

Naruto didn't want to be distracted, not when he was still deciding where to bite the asshole. Sasuke was really asking for it -- a good, hard, painful bite that would remind him to watch his mouth for the next days...

"Naruto, your eyes," she mumbled worriedly. "I don't know why it's -- just stop, okay?"

"What?" Naruto flinched as he understood. "-- Oh, shit." He turned to face the sea again and scrunched his eyes closed. Strange, Kyuubi wasn't even angry alongside him, so why was he so -- he didn't know. Kyuubi didn't even feel all that interested in fighting Sasuke, just... Watchful, sort of, but his attention wandering away from the trio. And if the fox-demon wasn't angry, why did Naruto want, not to _punch_ Sasuke, but to _bite_ him?

_/Bitch still needs to be taught his place/_ the fox commented absently.

That cinched it. _'Kyuubi, what's going on?'_ Naruto still wanted to flatten ears he didn't have and snap his fangs at Sasuke's nose, and while it wasn't strong enough to worry him he'd be taken over, it was still alien and strange, and he couldn't remember having felt that need independently of Kyuubi before -- or at least never so strongly.

"Naruto--"

"Not now," he grumbled, flashing teeth at Sakura without thinking. _'Kyuubi--'_

_/I really want to eat that goddamn cat./_

_'Huh?'_

Naruto flipped around. A trio of wide-brimmed-hat-wearing ninjas were walking by -- that sneering, narrow-eyed swordswoman he'd checked out earlier, all thin limbs and haughtiness; a dark-skinned guy with short, pale greenish hair and a cocky, lazy smirk; and a watchful, huge tank of a staff-wielding man. None of them spared a glance for Team Seven, except from the gray housecat draped on the big man's shoulder, which stared at Naruto unblinkingly until the trio was gone from view.

_'... That was it? You want to chase a cat?__ What do you think you are, a poodle?'_

There was no answer; Kyuubi sank back from the forefront of his consciousness, only leaving behind that strange watchfulness, that perked-ears feeling. Try as he may, Naruto couldn't get anything else out of him, and then Sakura's fist came down on his head, and Sasuke started wondering insultingly loud what was going on in his stupid head. The rest of the trip went by fast with all the bickering.

For those wondering what the three kunoichi look like, there's a link to a picture I did at the bottom of my profile.


	15. TW3chpt3 : the Island

_Okay, this chapter was originally the first, smaller half of a chapter, but I realized I was doing the "stuff everything in__, and end up with a bloated monster-chapter that no one can read in one sitting" thing again. So I cut it in two. It reads kind of transition-ish to me, but hey, it's also necessary. More action next chapter._

_**The **__**next chapter is already written (yes, really!),**__ I'll post it in a week or two when my beta is done with it._

_Tons of thanks to Proanon for the beta help._

* * *

**Chapter 3**** : The Island**

**Evening  
****(Sasuke)**

Team Seven disembarked on a picturesque stretch of pale gray beach, tinted salmon-pink with sunset lights and well-deserving of a second and third look, but they hit the sand running and were up the crumbling cliff in seconds. Sasuke took point, his teammates covering the flanks.

"Why are we hauling ass already?" Naruto asked as they rushed toward the closest boulders.

Sasuke snorted, amused that he'd followed their lead first and questioned it second.

"Because, look at this place!" Sakura retorted; Sasuke's sharingan caught the tail end of a demonstrative wave of her hand. "No cover to speak of. If the team who got off the boat at the previous stop ran, they might be waiting already."

Sasuke slipped in the shadow of the boulders and grimly surveyed the land. The ground was made of bubbly volcanic rock; there were cracks here and there, but none wide enough to hide in that he could see, and slight bumps and shallow hollows, smoothed by the sea. Wild grass and hardy, thorn-covered bushes kept close to the ground, and the tallest of the handful of trees Sasuke could see wasn't much higher than he could reach by just lifting a hand; he had a feeling anything taller wouldn't survive the rush of the sea wind.

The black cliff that barred them from rejoining the inhabited side of the island stood huge and smooth like a gigantic marble wall. Team Seven wouldn't be going that way; the only thing they would find was examiners and medic-nin waiting for a forfeit. Far ahead at the other end of the peninsula, faint with distance, creeping evening dark and sea fog, an unlit lighthouse cut into the barren skyline; there was no real relief to block the view.

At first glance, he would have called the place desolate; at second glance... This half of the island wasn't a dead rock by far, but most of the plant life he could see was hardy and compact, often waist-high at most; there was nothing growing there he could recognize easily. They would have to crawl around quite a bit.

"Keep an eye out," he advised Naruto as the blond hunkered down beside him. "What can you smell?"

Naruto shrugged, scratching his hair. "Mostly the sea. Kinda nasty."

Well, that was unhelpful. Sasuke supposed that with the sea wind Naruto's sense of smell would only be of use if something got between them and the beach.

There was enough open space around them to get advance warning if anything moved, so he let his sharingan fade for the moment. "Sakura, see anything edible?"

Sakura tucked a lock of windblown pink hair behind her ear. "There might be berries -- show them to me before you eat any, though. Edible roots, maybe. I think we'll have to make do with meat -- birds, and rabbits if there are any. The biggest mammals around here will probably be rodents. Snakes, perhaps..."

"Ew. Lizards too?" Naruto replied with a chuckle.

Sakura leaned forward to see past Sasuke and rolled her eyes at the blond. "Yes, and snails and big insects, if we have to. Just show them to me first, in case they're venomous."

"Oh well," Naruto said philosophically. "Snail, shellfish, it's kind of the same, isn't it?"

"Yes, and bad shellfish can kill you."

Sasuke tapped on the rock between his feet to remind them he was still there, ending the banter. "You studied the flora and fauna before we came, right?"

"Yes," Sakura answered as she pushed a stubborn lock of hair behind her ear again, "but I could only find info on what's on the continental coast. It seems logical that lots of bird and fish species will be the same on the archipelago, but as for the rest, it's hard to tell. There are certainly going to be bad surprises."

"Oh wow, _surprises_." Naruto crossed his hands behind his head and grinned guilelessly. "Blah-blah-blah steal tokens off people, blah-blah-blah fight other teams as you haul ass to that big tower over there, blah-blah-blah the cute squirrels can kill you -- only this time it's an ISLAND of death. Yeah, I'm surprised."

Sakura reached around Sasuke's back to smack the blond over the head. Sasuke sighed. "If you two are _done_... What first? Look for our first targets? Food? Shelter?"

"Water," Naruto answered instantly; Sasuke arched an eyebrow, and then frowned when he caught sight of his face. The blond looked strangely thoughtful, his eyes unfocused. "Kyuubi says fresh water. Prey will come on its own."

Sasuke frowned, and Sakura moved her weight from one foot to the other one restlessly and smiled, trying to hide her discomfort. "Ah... I suppose that's a good suggestion," she said, a little stiff. "We could deal without food a lot longer than without water. But is there a stream out here? They did say nothing would come through the black wall; will there be sources on this side? It's closer to sea level..."

"There might be pools of rainwater," Sasuke replied, frowning as he thought of their next move. "But how to find that..."

"Hey, let's look where birds land, they gotta know."

Sasuke scanned the sky, but the only birds he could see were gulls nesting on the cliffs. "We need to move anyway. Where to? Straight to the tower? Stay on the coast?"

"The sea limits our escape routes," Sakura replied. "It would take a lot longer to get to the tower as well."

"Yeah, but if we get too far from the sea and there's nothing to eat inland then we'll be fucked. At least we know there's fish and shrimpy things in the water."

"So let's follow the coast from a distance," Sasuke decided. It was a good compromise. He shifted his weight forward; Naruto started moving with him, but Sakura didn't.

"Um, Naruto?"

That was her 'I think we have to talk' voice; Sasuke squatted to keep out of sight and looked over his shoulder at her. Surprised, Naruto stood in full sight a second longer before he followed suit.

"Uh -- yeah?"

She let out a sigh and looked up at the blond. "You've been, um, communing a lot with Kyuubi recently..."

Naruto winced and gave her a vaguely nervous laugh. "Ah, yeah, I guess. I don't know what's up, really, maybe he doesn't wanna miss the incoming blood and gore."

Flustered, Sakura tugged her hair back again -- the wind pushed it free the next second -- and gave Naruto a frustrated look. "But he didn't -- say anything?"

"Urgh! He says way too much, you mean. But it's nothing interesting."

Sakura didn't look reassured. Sasuke wasn't, either. But it was visible that Naruto didn't want to talk about it -- and he looked embarrassed and annoyed more than guilty and afraid, so Sasuke thought they could afford not to push.

"Is he trying to take over?" he asked bluntly, to confirm.

Naruto twitched, startled, and waved his hands in insistent denial. "What? No! It's just peanut gallery stuff. And he wanted to eat some guy's cat, can you believe that?"

Sasuke blinked. The fearsome and terrible Kyuubi no Youko, Scourge of the Fire Country... chasing cats. "..._Huh_."

"But that's it, really. He hasn't been pushing at all."

"Okay." Sasuke activated his sharingan and scanned the rocky plain around them; nothing moved but grass and dust and the wind. "That's good enough for now. Warn us if it changes," he added, and started to move toward lower ground where they wouldn't have to crouch quite so much. They really couldn't afford to waste time to grill him right now. "Let's find water if we can, and shelter before it's dark. Tomorrow we start moving early."

Sakura still didn't seem entirely reassured, but she didn't protest, crawling through the reeds and thistle bushes after him. Naruto followed on her heels, and Sasuke pretended not to notice the easy grace with which he moved on all fours.

* * *

**Night**

**(Sakura)**

She liked the bridge. It was her bridge -- their bridge. It was where she waited, had always waited, would always wait, because if she waited long enough they would come to find her and be together again. It was a bridge of promises. She liked the color of the pillars, too, rust-red, warm but not shocking, and the arches overhead that looked like temple gates. The trees around were a hundred shades of green, so alive, rustling in the wind, offering patches of gentle shadows, and water ran underneath in a clean, sparkling stream of clear blue.

She liked waiting there. It was restful. When she was rested enough, she would (come out wake up) go find them on her own, but for now it was nice.

Then he came to find her but it was weird. He wasn't on the bridge. They were supposed to come on the bridge, unless they came up on the arches. _Hey_, he said, standing on the water, and she stared in confusion. The river was for (fish water chakra life) other things.

_You're not in the right place_, she said. And he was making the river a little weird, a thin trail of gold-rust-red trailing downstream like a ribbon. It was pretty, though, like liquid fire in the middle of all the sky greens and spring blues.

_Weren't you waiting for me?_ he said. He was tall and he was strong, wide shoulder, corded muscles, loose-jointed gait. And he was blond. Rusty? Blond. She'd been waiting for him. Him and SasukeInoKakashiMomDad, but they'd come too.

_But you're in the river_, she explained, very seriously. _You can't be in the river_. Because he couldn't. It wasn't a people place.

Then he grinned at her like a little sun and he held out his (paw) (claws) hand. _So pull me up. You're strong, aren't you?_

And she wanted to say she wasn't, but then she remembered she was. So she grumbled (smiled back) and held out her hand and his eyes were liquid fire and she woke up.

Sakura tried to gather her memories before the dream evaporated into meaningless wisps. It frayed faster the harder she tried, though, and in the end she was left with the vague image of a bridge, a feeling like something not in its place, and a question she wasn't sure how to answer. _'Did I take his hand?'_ She couldn't say.

So strange. Pleasant on the surface, but a little eerie, too... Just like night on this island, with the darkness of an almost moonless night and animal calls in the distance that only managed to highlight the unnerving silence. Sakura wouldn't be going back to sleep just yet.

It was pitch black in the little hollow they had chosen to camp, and there was barely enough space for two people, but they'd been taking turns keeping watch, and she had the last slot. Naruto had been on watch first, and Sasuke next; someone should have been beside her, but when she stretched her arms, the blanket was cold and there was no one to bump into.

Where were they? Squinting, she pushed her blanket aside and crawled to the mouth of the shelter they'd made, with dried, thorny bushes for walls and a camo-patterned cloth stretched overhead for a roof.

There wasn't much more light outside, but she could still see the edge of someone's body, a blacker shadow than the rest.

"Awake?"

Sasuke. She relaxed. That was one of them. "Ah, yes... I had a dream..."

"Bad?" Sasuke asked quietly, and she imagined a little I'm-not-concerned-really frown on his face to go with his tone.

"Just weird. Something about a red bridge. And Naruto." She paused, frowned a little. Maybe not Naruto... And that reminded her. "Where is he, by the way?"

"I don't know. Around." Sasuke gave a short sigh of vague annoyance. "Go back to sleep," he advised. Sakura shook her head.

"I don't think I can yet." She crawled out of the shelter, squinting in the dark. It was cold, so close to the sea.

The Sasuke-shadow leaned back; her memory provided the image of the rock he was probably sitting on, a vaguely couch-shaped stone, but she was still disoriented enough to have a hard time judging distances. The terrain was tricky and she didn't remember where all the ankle-breaking cracks were. She stayed down in a crouch, feeling around with her hand. Sasuke nudged her with his foot, and she leaned on his knee to straighten up, shivering a little.

"Did he say where he was going?"

She tried to find a comfortable seat on Sasuke's rock. He didn't move away, so she leaned against his side tentatively, and shivered at his warmth. She sort of wished he would wrap an arm around her, but Sasuke would probably refuse to compromise his mobility more than he already had.

Something was sniffing her neck.

"Gah!" She elbowed back, stumbling off the rock and whirling around.

From the little puffs of breath up and down the back of her head, she'd been expecting some kind of predator, maybe a wild cat, but her palm bumped against a human cheek. But then there was a yip of pain, and then a growl, and what kind of human made those noises -- _oh_.

The realization came simultaneously with Sasuke's annoyed whisper. "Naruto, cut that out already."

She crouched against thorny bushes, eyes wide and still not seeing much of anything. Oh -- there, a shape, perched on the back of Sasuke's rocky seat. "Ah -- Naruto? Sorry -- you could have warned me!"

He made a strange grumpy half-growl and leaned back in to sniff some more, close enough for her to catch a faint glimmer of white in his eyes. She wasn't sure how he managed to stretch forward that far without tumbling face down off the rock.

"... Naruto...?"

"Don't bother. He's sleepwalking," Sasuke confirmed with an irritated sigh.

"...Oh." Sakura shivered, though she didn't move away. Well, at least it sounded like she wasn't the only one he'd done that to.

Naruto slunk off his rock with animal grace, making her tense up, and then he just bypassed her and disappeared between the bushes, barely ruffling the leaves at all.

"...Brr." Sakura rubbed her arms, attempting to warm herself up. Sasuke settled himself back in his seat, making her realize that he'd tensed up too. She bit her lip, worried. "It's kind of..."

"Yeah," Sasuke said. "Not the best time to roam."

He nudged her with his foot, and she followed his leg back to his seat, grateful for the offer.

"No, I mean -- creepy?"

She didn't need to see to know that Sasuke was frowning at her.

"... Listen, I know it's not Naruto's fault, but -- it makes me nervous, you know? It's not Naruto -- it's not even Kyuubi..."

Sasuke snorted. "I'd rather he'd be like that than like Kyuubi. The way he is now, he might cross paths with someone he shouldn't, but if he were Kyuubi, he'd go looking for them."

Sighing, Sakura conceded the point. "Well, yes, but ... I can't even tell if he's thinking at all when he's like that." She bowed her head, fingers tangling and knotting on her lap. "It's almost like there's no one home. It's _creepy_. And I think -- I don't know -- when Jiraiya-sama said Naruto's seal wasn't going to cause problems -- I mean, that it would be a little inconvenient, but otherwise okay..."

Sasuke didn't say anything, waiting for her to finish. She did so in a whisper, so quiet she barely heard herself.

"Sometimes I'm not sure he was telling the truth."

"...Hn."

Sasuke was silent for a few minutes, and Sakura huddled against the rock at her back to get out of the cold sea wind as she waited.

"What makes you think that?"

"I don't know. He said it was fine to the councilmen, but, you know..." Jiraiya and Kakashi hadn't seen anything wrong about lying to anyone but Tsunade about Team Seven's experiments with the chakra pipeline. So just because he'd waved off Sakura and Sasuke's concerns regarding the seal...

"He'd have told Naruto."

Sakura bit her lip. Sasuke's tone was decisive, but then again he rarely allowed himself to sound unsure. And she didn't know Jiraiya that well; he was more secretive than his loud flashiness and frank words hinted at, and who knew whether he wouldn't hide some things for Naruto's own good... But if Kakashi knew anything about that, he would have told them. He didn't believe in sparing his students.

Naruto had been known to fail to mention some things to his teammates if he believed it would worry them too much, but she didn't want to go there. He'd said nothing was wrong -- he might have tried to downplay things, but he wouldn't outright lie to them.

"You're right, I guess. I just... It really is creepy," she finished lamely. "He hasn't been doing it much since we moved in together -- maybe two times? I didn't expect him to start again in the middle of the test."

"... Huh." Sasuke sounded like he was scowling. "... Maybe the stress," he muttered, but he didn't sound entirely convinced. "He was doing it more when he lived with me. New surroundings, perhaps."

Sakura didn't reply.

She was cold, and tired, but Sasuke was warm and she still felt unsettled; it was hard to summon the determination to tear herself away from him and go back to sleep. She'd almost mustered up the resolve when an animal yowled somewhere close by. She slipped off the rock into a crouch and went still.

"...Sasuke-kun?"

Leafy thickets rustled wildly as a big predator gave chase to something. Sakura was pretty sure it was Naruto -- the island just didn't have the ability to support many predators bigger than a coyote at most -- but pretty sure wasn't a hundred percent sure, and she wouldn't be surprised if the Mist ninjas had stuffed it full of exotic beasts for the occasion.

There were snuffling sounds, and a faint, grouchy growl, and dry grass crunched their way. At her side, Sasuke relaxed slowly. "... Idiot. That's discreet."

Squinting, she caught sight of Naruto's shape. He ambled toward her and nuzzled her shoulder, and then slumped between her and Sasuke, his head propped up on her knee. "Uh -- Naruto?"

No reply. Wincing, she tried to find a comfortable position without dislodging him. Sasuke had no such compunction, and shoved Naruto's ass off his foot remorselessly. Naruto growled and snapped his teeth at him, and then slumped on them again, stubborn.

Sakura smothered a chuckle in her hand, only slightly nervous. That was such a Naruto attitude, even if the behavior was strange. And it was dark enough that she didn't have to watch the disturbing lack of expression on his face. It was still a way to signify affection. Gently, she petted his head; he sighed, wriggled a little, his cheek on her lap, and went still. Sakura combed his spikes with her fingers.

"You'll need a haircut soon," she mused, brushing long bangs away from his forehead.

Naruto sighed contentedly and buried his nose in her lap.

"...That does it, he's totally Naruto."

Sasuke made a little amused noise. "Like there was any doubt." He nudged Naruto's body with his foot again, but Naruto shifted his weight so that his hip crushed Sasuke's toes.

Sakura's chuckle was cut off by a yawn.

"He's done wandering," Sasuke remarked. "Go to bed."

"Fine, fine. Perhaps he'll join me and stay put..." Sakura started maneuvering to free herself. Naruto grumbled, making himself heavier, but she was cold, tired and sitting on pointy rocks, and she didn't want to deal with it any longer. "Goodnight, Sasuke-kun."

"Mmh. 'Night."

She crawled back in their shelter, burrowed under the blankets, and shivered. But a minute later a warm body crawled in after her and curled up against her back. It didn't take her long to go back to sleep.

She dreamed of the man in the river again, but the water was cold like sea winds and she didn't want him making a mess on her bridge, so she went and dreamed somewhere else.

* * *

**(Naruto)**

"You're awake, aren't you."

Naruto grunted an affirmative before he could think better of it. He blinked in the dark as he realized his mistake, and then groaned and let his head fall back on Sasuke's foot.

"How long?"

He sighed when Sasuke bounced his toes a little, making Naruto's head move. Naruto should have stayed in the shelter with Sakura instead of coming back out to listen to the night. He'd been comfortable with her, spooned against her back. Well, physically so.

"... Dunno. A while. Kinda." The words felt strange, tongue too thick, jaw a little too tense. At least it wasn't gibberish; fifteen minutes ago, it would have been. Even now making whole sentences seemed like a hassle.

Sasuke didn't push, of course. Naruto sighed and closed his eyes. He sort of wished he would. But the day Sasuke grilled him on his little feelings... Hah.

It was so quiet now that they were alone. And moving away from Sakura did nothing to stop him thinking and allow him to sleep.

"Hey Sasuke..."

"Hm?"

"Is it really creepy?"

Sasuke, of course, didn't as a rule spare Naruto's feelings any more than he asked Naruto to share them. "Yeah."

Naruto hunched a little. _'Creepy_.' Even if Sasuke didn't care much either way, the word still stung.

It hadn't been like an on-off switch, between him and the weird fox-mind, more like a sliding scale. He'd heard and registered most of the conversation -- he just hadn't understood the implications right away. It hadn't hit until he was curled against Sakura's back.

He sighed; Sasuke kicked him lightly in the kidneys. Well, lightly for Sasuke. Naruto lifted his head and glared in the approximate direction of his face. "Ow. What the hell?"

"What's the use of working out a schedule if you won't sleep when it's your turn?" Sasuke grouched. "Go get some rest already."

"I'm not tired."

"Liar."

"I'm not!"

"You are. You're distracting me, too."

Naruto made a noise of indignation. "You're the one talking to me! I'd be quiet if you weren't all 'it's chatty hour' or something. Do you want me to go back to Sakura that bad?"

Naruto hadn't really intended to say that -- hadn't intended to even mention her, because then it reminded him that it wasn't just the tent he didn't feel like returning to. Guilt closed his throat.

It took him several seconds to notice Sasuke hadn't answered, was still suspiciously quiet. Naruto pushed himself upright with his hands and blinked. Squinting, he could see the pale oval of Sasuke's face, just enough detail to realize Sasuke was staring at him right back.

"... Heh." He laughed, slightly nervous. "Almost looks like you're jealous." He regretted the words as soon as they were out; there were shittier things to say to someone you were in a three-way relationship with, but not a lot.

Sasuke's voice turned frosty. "Shut up."

Naruto had had the vague thought that maybe Sasuke wanted to be the one in the tent with her, because if Naruto had been sitting out in the cold while his teammates were all cozy and asleep, that's where he should have wanted to be, too. He hadn't been serious, though -- Sasuke was so haughty and emotionally constipated that accusing him of jealousy always got a twinge of response, even when it had nothing to do with anything.

But that reaction meant Naruto was right.

And wrong, too -- he knew that suddenly, something in the pitch of Sasuke's voice, the precise nuance of his frustration. It wasn't Naruto Sasuke was jealous of.

"... Oh. Seriously?"

"That meant no, retard. Now go back inside, you're bothersome."

Somehow it wasn't very convincing when Sasuke sounded vaguely wounded.

Naruto sat on the ground in silence for a minute, trying to figure out what to do. He'd never been exceedingly sensitive, and it was a little strange to think that Sasuke would be jealous of Sakura over him. Maybe he'd misunderstood. And even if he hadn't, how was he supposed to fix it? He wasn't in a mood to fix anything.

Now he felt even shittier for threatening to go back to Sakura. A bit alarmed too -- Sasuke just _had _to love Sakura. He _couldn't_ not love her -- the thought of how much it would hurt her made Naruto sick to his stomach...

But he didn't know how to say that without making a bigger mess of things -- the wrong words would make Sasuke really think that Sakura mattered more than him to Naruto -- and there was something else Naruto should say first anyway. So he blurted it out, before he could overthink everything some more. "I'm sorry."

"...About what?"

"Just... Shouldn't have said that."

Sasuke didn't ask 'That what?'; Naruto relaxed and laughed weakly. He couldn't be that angry if he wasn't forcing Naruto to give his apology in excruciating detail.

"I'm an ass, yeah?"

Sasuke snorted. "Yeah." There was a moment of silence. "...At least you're in good company."

Naruto's smile grew a little less shaky. An acknowledgement that Sasuke too behaved like an ass on occasion, so Naruto's own lapses weren't too surprising, was worth a dozen formal 'Apology accepted.'

But he didn't have a clue how to broach the 'How jealous of her are you exactly' topic. What if he pissed Sasuke off and then the bastard felt even more isolated? What if Sakura woke up and overheard? What if ...?

... What he really wanted to ask was whether Sasuke was in love with Sakura. But it wasn't his place -- Sasuke should tell Sakura, or Sakura should hint, or -- whatever, Naruto didn't have the right to ask, not that the bastard would ever answer him.

Maybe he wasn't in love with Sakura, not yet -- or maybe he was, who knew, he was king of denial -- but Naruto had eyes and he could see the tenderness, and the growing reciprocity in the way he touched her shoulder, brushed his lips against her hair. But asking point blank was guaranteed to trigger the bastard's amazing stonewalling capacity and delay even more his and Sakura's situation.

What Naruto really, really wondered, was whether Sasuke was in love with _him_. Except, in a way, he really didn't want to ask.

The thought made him feel strange. Their bond was unbreakable, deeper than anything, but at times it seemed too painful and weird to claim the name of love. It was just... there. They belonged with each other, wouldn't be complete, wouldn't stand upright properly on their own. The annoyance and the fights were real enough, but the way they could -- and would -- tear each other to shreds inside and out didn't change a thing. In a way 'love' seemed too ordinary.

And in another way, if Sasuke declared himself to him, it didn't matter that they were totally (non-girlishly) _soulmates_, or they'd been sleeping together for months, Naruto would probably fluster himself into an early grave, by way of blurting out something dumb and catching a fist-shaped backlash in the face.

At least there was probably zero risk of Naruto having to figure out what the hell he should do with an armful of red roses.

"Your brain is going to overheat."

Naruto blinked, startled out of his thoughts. "... _Hey_!" He glared up, not that it mattered much. Sasuke could talk about Naruto being in good company -- so far the Uchiha still had the unbroken record of assholishness across the whole of Konoha. Naruto wouldn't be surprised if he died at eighty in his bed still holding the title.

"... It's not gonna overheat in this weather anyway," Naruto muttered.

A cold gust of wind ran through the island, giving him all the excuse he needed to climb on the rock Sasuke used as a seat and lean against his side. Naruto hugged his knees to his chest and stared straight ahead, pretending the contact was a total accident.

Sasuke nudged him in the ribs with his elbow, but the lack of hard shove to the ground was all the confirmation Naruto needed.

"What is this, 'lean on Sasuke' night?"

"Oh shut up, it's your fault you're warm."

Sasuke made an irritated noise, but refrained from otherwise counterattacking. Naruto relaxed with a slow sigh.

He was sure now; Sasuke liked him -- perhaps not in a heart-aflutter way, Sasuke would never ever let that show, but at least enough to allow him to mope and sulk without kicking him into shape, and even enough to be nice, in a stealthy Sasuke way. And his moments of Sakura jealousy couldn't be that bad or he'd have been more of a grumpy, sulky asshole, and he'd been downright sociable recently, especially in that shower stall. And maybe Naruto had overreacted about Sakura's words; by the end, she'd been petting and cuddling with him, after all -- maybe she'd just needed some time to get used to it and was already over it. It wouldn't be right to mope for days because her acceptance of his scary freakishness had taken a few minutes.

"... Do you find it creepy too?"

Sasuke shrugged. "It's weird. Wild foxes aren't supposed to be human-shaped." His matter-of-fact tone said he didn't care much, though. "But you don't ravage the countryside or piss on things inside the house. I'm sure I can survive."

Naruto leaned into Sasuke and licked a long wet trail over his jaw.

"Hey!" Sasuke shoved his shoulder and rubbed his cheek dry with his sleeve. "That wasn't an invitation to be disgusting."

Naruto laughed. "Oh, come off it, like I never licked you other places."

"This conversation is over."

Naruto's shoulders shook with a laugh he couldn't let out; it would have been too loud. He nudged Sasuke with his shoulder, leaned more of his weight against the other teenager. He really was warm; Naruto made a pleased sound and burrowed closer, wedging an arm between Sasuke's back and the rock.

"If an enemy attacks, I won't hesitate to go through you."

Naruto rolled his eyes, unconvinced. "Uh huh."

He closed his eyes. The night air was fresh and clean, carrying the smell of night-blooming flowers. His foot was wedged against Sasuke's thigh. Granted, there was gravel embedded in his ass, but it wasn't pointy enough to matter.

It was almost cozy, really.

"...Are you really determined to stay up?" Sasuke asked with unconvincing annoyance.

"Yeah. I'm not sleepy."

Sasuke grumbled under his breath. "Fine, if you want to be exhausted tomorrow." He crossed his arms and leaned back against the rock -- against Naruto's arm too, incidentally. Naruto would lose circulation in his fingers pretty soon. "I'm taking a nap. Wake me up when you get tired."

"Heh." Naruto didn't bother pulling free, so Sasuke wouldn't 'be reminded' of the fact that technically Naruto was kinda-sorta holding him. "Okay. 'Night, boyfriend."

"... Don't call me pet names."

"Sure thing, darling."

"... Naruto."

"Babe?"

"Na_ru_to."

Hehe. "... Night, Sasuke."

Sakura was supposed to have the last shift once Sasuke's was done, but Naruto kept watch until the sky turned from black to peach and gold.

After that of course he fell asleep, and Sakura had to wake them both up, and just about anything could have attacked them with no sentry my god what were you _thinking_, but nothing had, so he groped them both and ran.


	16. TW3chpt4: Allies

Sorry about the one week turning into one month, when I moved I was told that the internet would be very easy to move too, "just give us your new address and voilà!" Ahaha. Haha. Bastards. THREE WEEKS OFFLINE. Haaaate. But now I have it back, oh my precious, I'm never letting you go again.

Lots of Team Kunoichi in this chapter. **They're **_**not**_** going to become important to the plot**, I was just having way too much fun with the way team Seven reacts to them and so their scenes grew, and since it does interesting things to NaruSasuSaku, I kept it. Once this chapter is over, they'll go back to cameo/background team status.

Beta by the superawesome Proanon.

* * *

**Chapter ****4 : Allies  
****(Sasuke)**

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Sasuke glared at the little rivulet slowly filtering through a folded-up length of bandage, leaving brownish-gold tracks on the white cloth. The gourd underneath was only a third full. He had a feeling this was going to take hours.

Frowning, he wedged himself in a sitting position on a rocky ledge, a foot pushing against the opposite wall of the narrow crevasse, his other leg dangling just over the muddy, sluggish stream that ran at the bottom. At least he was out of sight. He'd reached the miniature waterfall by wading through the stream from the sea up, and hadn't touched anything; his scent should have evaporated by now.

This was the morning of the second day of the test and they hadn't found anyone to steal tokens from yet, be they other genin or wandering jounin. Sasuke pulled his own out of its hiding place in his arm-warmer and turned it over in his hand. It was a simple coin-sized disk of copper, with the Mist Village symbol and a serial number engraved on it.

"You get three per team!" they'd been told, "And if you want to pass, you'll bring nine back. That's nine per team, provided you're a full team; lose a member, and it's every man for himself at the exit."

Sasuke had made calculations. Taking into account the lone members' augmented need for tokens and the expected brutality of the Mist genin in the competition, it wasn't so surprising they'd had to add Jounin to the mix if they wanted the tournament of the third test to be anything worth looking at. No doubt every country wanted an acceptable number of new Chuunin made this exam to strengthen their villages; no one would be satisfied if only a handful of people passed because the level was insanely high, and the rest all died or were sent home too badly crippled to ever try again.

The wandering jounin weren't supposed to attack the genin or make the test more difficult; but they carried a token each, and if you could steal it off them, Sasuke supposed that was one less you had to pry from a fellow genin's cold, dead fingers. But so far Team Seven hadn't seen anyone at all, jounin or genin.

The stream kept dripping. Might as well do something productive... Sasuke cupped his hands, concentrated his chakra. The stone would protect him from chakra-sensitive people, and if anyone heard the chirping, well, there were enough birds nesting everywhere on this island to account for it.

Ox, Hare, Monkey.

Of course, if anyone got close enough to see the glow... Maybe he'd get some exercise.

"Chidori."

And again. Ox, Hare, Monkey.

He was in the middle of his fourth Chidori not-quite-sphere, and getting no closer to mastering the highly unstable shape, when the dense tangle of plants at the surface started rustling. It was a specific pattern of movement : someone running. Someone running really fast.

Two someones. Maybe more, but in that case they were quieter about it.

And not his teammates. They came from entirely the wrong direction for that. Sasuke screwed the half-full gourd top closed and secured the precious water to his belt. Swinging his legs off the ledge, he slipped out of his seat and crept up the rocky wall, and looked out through the gray-green leaves of the low bushes hanging over the edges of the canyon.

When he saw the kunoichi team, the ones who'd hung all over Naruto on the ferry, running for their lives from three burly, sword-brandishing men, he was tempted to stay in his hiding place and let them fend for themselves. But unless they changed directions, they would cross paths with his own teammates in short order.

And then he got a closer look at the men chasing the kunoichi trio, and hiding ceased to be an option. It was close to impossible for triplets to be identical, which meant the trio of Rock ninjas were kage bunshins. Which meant the guy with the oversized scimitar still had two teammates crawling around somewhere. Somewhere where _his _teammates might be.

Sasuke sprang out of the canyon under one of the triplets' feet. His kunai buried itself in guts to the hilt, and for a second, Sasuke thought he'd gotten the caster, but it burst into smoke as Sasuke landed. Two enemies left, and they reacted fast. A large, viciously curved sword whistled through the air where his head should have been, prompting Sasuke to throw himself down and roll through the thorny bushes.

He still had the chakra he'd intended for a Chidori sphere in his hands, and by now his hands flew through the seals without a pause. The footing was bad for launching himself fast enough; he wouldn't reach his target.

But he still remembered what Naruto had said on that boat, about lightning wanting to take shapes more natural to it. Not wanting to be static. He shoved the energy outwards, trying to force it down a straight, narrow beam.

He'd been aiming for the one on the left, but the other one's metal sword was closer and his Chidori beam broke his control and crackled to the side. The man exploded in a puff of smoke and dust; Sasuke swept through the opening. Too late to stop the original as his hands flitted through hand seals Sasuke knew all too well. Two other clones popped into existence to replace the two he'd just destroyed.

At least now Sasuke knew who was the original. If he knocked him out... but the clones blocked his way as the original went back to giving chase to the kunoichi team. He caught a glimpse of the blonde with the curly hair stumbling, and the brunette with the spear whirled around, swinging her longer weapon at the Rock ninja's legs under his guard, but Sasuke couldn't see more than that before his own assailants demanded his attention again.

For a few intense seconds, it was all he could see -- the synchronized dance of two large, curved swords, forcing him to weave and dodge. He was good enough to avoid any close calls, but if he slowed down too much, they would get him. He needed to end this, quickly.

He allowed them to corner him, to leave him only one escape route; they predictably pushed him into it. Kicking off the rock at his back, he jumped high in the air. No trees to ricochet off of; they knew exactly where he would land. They were waiting, matching smirks on their faces.

"Katon: Goukakyou no jutsu!"

By the time he landed, the bunshins were gone -- but so were the kunoichi team and the last, real enemy. Sasuke gave chase. He couldn't see them anymore, no doubt hidden behind a falsely shallow bump of the ground, but they hadn't made any efforts to hide their tracks; he saw trampled grass, and even a few uprooted bushes.

He crested a hillock, and first saw the tall, brown-haired girl. She lay in a tangle of gangly limbs in the middle of a thicket, a few feet down the slope; the shrubs had been half-uprooted by her weight, threatening to dump her down the sharper incline of the hill. Blood soaked her bandaged arm and her zippered bodysuit and she'd been disarmed, but she was conscious and no one tried to finish her off; there were more urgent things to do than to stop and chat. Sasuke leaped over her body, skidding down the slope in a shower of loosened rocks and dust.

"H-hey!" she called weakly behind him.

Growling impatiently, Sasuke snatched her spear off the ground, screeching to a stop on a rock to send it sailing toward its owner. That was all he was disposed to do in her favor; turning back, he caught a glimpse of the brunette crawling through the bush to get at the spear, and then he was running again.

The rest of them weren't far; he just had to turn around the corner of a small cliff, and here they were. The Rock ninja with his big, curved sword -- no bunshins this time. Sasuke was briefly surprised to see he hadn't taken the time to make a few more -- as poor fighters as the blonde and the transvestite were, comparatively, it was still two against one.

The Rock nin was targeting the blonde, who held him at bay with wild slashes of razor wire, making cut-up leaves and flowers fly; but as Sasuke ran to meet them, the guy blocked the wires with the thick edge of his sword; he let their momentum wrap them around the blade, and yanked the girl off her feet. A kunai thrown at the wires by her teammate cut her free, and she rolled away just as the Rock nin's sword came down.

She wouldn't dodge the follow-up slash; Sasuke put on a burst of speed, but unless she managed to dodge again, he was going to be too late.

That was when her teammate tackled the enemy.

Sasuke would have done the same -- provided he somehow managed to lose every single one of his kunai and drive himself to the very edge of chakra exhaustion when his enemy was still good for another round or three. But someone needed to explain to that idiot that a guy who could successfully pass for a small-boned, delicate girl had no business hurtling himself at a hulking warrior, especially one with such a solid, rooted stance.

The gray-haired guy had had the foresight to braid his too-long hair and stuff it down his shirt; the rest of his flowing clothes made aiming for his body more difficult, though Sasuke could see a few shallow cuts on his upper arms and ribs, but they weren't so safe against getting grabbed. The Rock ninja did lose a second that the girl used to crawl clear -- but he only switched targets, elbowing the gray-haired boy who clung to his back in the ribs hard enough to make the boy gasp.

Sasuke was close enough to throw kunai now, but they kept moving, the Rock ninja trying to get a good hold on the boy, the boy doing his best not to let him. Sasuke chose to snatch up the girl instead, throwing her across his shoulder and bouncing up the cliff. He dumped her on her ass at the top, where she couldn't get in the way, and jumped back down, ignoring her outraged shriek.

By the time he got back down, the Rock ninja was holding his squirming adversary under one arm, sword in that hand, and was doing his best to search him for tokens with his free hand.

Sasuke personally thought solid, Earth-rooted stances were good for one thing; at the last moment, the Rock guy saw his kunai coming, but he wasn't fast enough to dodge it. It stabbed home just over his hip, and his hold on both weapon and prisoner went slack. The gray-haired boy squirmed free and scrambled away down the canyon. Sasuke didn't bother keeping an eye on him. Another kunai in hand, he stared down the enemy.

"Give me your token," Sasuke said, the first and last ultimatum he was ready to offer. The rock ninja only sneered, but Sasuke's sharingan caught the barest twitch of a hand toward his belt, where he had no doubt stashed it.

He didn't need a sharingan to catch the way the man paled when he realized the hidden pocket was empty.

"The little shit!" the Rock ninja snarled, incensed.

Sasuke had to dodge back quickly when the enemy pulled out an explosive tag and threw it at him. The cliffs shook; gravel rattled down. He jumped forward through the thick dust, squinting, only to see the swordsman's back as he gave chase to the escaping transvestite. From her perch up the cliff, the blonde hurtled rocks at his head, slowing down the burly, injured ninja a little more, and for a second Sasuke assumed he would have no trouble catching up at all.

And then the blonde screamed down. "Look out! _Water!_"

What tipped Sasuke off to her actual meaning was the rush of displaced air at his back, as if pushed along the canyon by something massive and rather hurried.

He glanced over his shoulder. A twelve feet high wall of water rushed down the canyon, forcing Sasuke to jump for the closest jutting rock and scramble up. He got clear in time, but the splash soaked his legs and made his hold a little slippery. He scanned his surroundings for the caster of the jutsu, a corner of his mind noting that the flash flood wasn't that long; it was already losing speed and mass, leaving behind soggy moss, wet rocks, and a lot of mud in the cracks.

Sasuke climbed to the top of his rock and leaped to the cliff, scanning his surroundings. He found the caster after a few seconds; he was pale and a little shaky, but then such a huge mass of water probably required effort. But when Sasuke advanced on him, the enemy's hands snapped up into a series of seals Sasuke had never seen before. Sasuke's hands came up to mimic his, knowing he couldn't block a water attack with fire or thunder.

... And then Sakura popped up behind the enemy and brained him with a rock.

Well then.

Sasuke sighed, scanned their surroundings for an eventual third Rock ninja, didn't find any, and allowed himself to let the battle high simmer down.

"Sasuke!" Naruto called from the other cliff. "What the hell happened here?"

Sasuke growled and nodded toward the blonde girl who stood a dozen feet away, half-hidden behind a boulder. "What do you think happened, genius?"

Naruto blinked and waved at the girl. "Hey, Kigane!" While Sakura efficiently hogtied and searched the ninjutsu user, Naruto stepped up toward the edge of the cliff. He gave the wet ground below a dubious look, and then he glared at Sasuke. "You coulda gotten some water while you were at it! I bet you forgot."

"... Oh, fuck you."

Naruto didn't even pay attention. With a big leap, he crossed the gap, sauntering up to the blonde bimbo. Sasuke's eyes narrowed. On the other side of the canyon, Sakura yanked a bit hard on a rope, making her prisoner moan weakly.

"You okay there, Kigane? Where are your teammates?"

She gave him a look full of anguish, with a little despair sprinkled on top, and latched onto his arm, all but cuddling it in her cleavage. Sasuke stalked toward them. The nerve of her, trying to play that card here and now...

"Beni-chan got hit and she fell, and Jin-kun -- that big guy with the sword chased him, and I don't know where he is now, and --"

Her breath hitched; Naruto gave her a worried look and patted her hand awkwardly. "Hey, hey! It's gonna be alright. We'll go find Beni and patch her up, and -- Sasuke, did you see which way Jin went?"

Sakura landed between Sasuke and Naruto before Sasuke could make contact. She looked about as annoyed as Sasuke felt; he didn't try to push past her to yank the clingy bimbo off Naruto, since he had a feeling Sakura intended to do just that. And Sakura did; she patted the girl's shoulder with perfunctory compassion, and detached her from Naruto's arm under the pretense of running a quick health check on her.

"Your wrist is sprained, you shouldn't use it like that," Sakura said, expressionless, as she took hold of said wrist, unhooked the razor-wire bracelet, and felt for deeper damage underneath.

From the way Kigane grimaced, it wasn't a very gentle check, but the girl didn't complain. The way she watched Sakura, Sasuke was pretty sure the underlining 'you should also _never touch him again_' had gotten through.

Naruto scanned the horizon, frowning. "If that sword guy is still after Jin, he's gotta be in trouble. Sasuke, you saw which way they went--"

Sasuke pointed out the right direction. "I was down in the canyons, I didn't see much more. You can track them better than I can. You go." Naruto looked like he was going to protest, even without knowing that the kunoichi team and their hunter tended to leave tracks like a troop of rampaging bears. Sasuke frowned harder. "I need to lead Sakura to where the other girl is."

"-- Right, right." Accepting Sasuke's reasoning, Naruto patted Kigane on the shoulder, grinning at her. "Relax, I'll get him back." He was gone in a flash, running along the edge of the cliff until they lost him from view behind a clump of gnarly trees.

In unison, Sasuke and Sakura turned around to stare at the interloper. The girl beamed at them, playing with her curls nervously.

"... That's... So great of you to help us like that! But then, that's the Konoha spirit, right? You guys saved us."

Sakura gave her a narrow-eyed 'can the bullshit' glare; Sasuke noted and filed away the unexpectedly fierce expression.

"Konoha spirit, my _ass_. Hand over your token."

Kigane's sunny grin faltered and her shoulders slumped. "Man, you guys are harsh."

"Token," Sakura demanded again, holding out her hand. "You've got three, you can spare one."

"Aw, come on..."

"Your teammate's bleeding out," Sasuke mentioned, crossing his arms, and fought not to smile, or smirk, or anything of the sort.

"Fine!" Kigane gave in with a pout. "But I don't have them, Jin was the one who kept them all. We'll give you one when Naruto-kun brings him back, how's that?"

Sasuke didn't say anything, letting Sakura decide. Her brows were furrowed, her jaw set, and he didn't remember her eyes being quite that green before, or quite that sharp.

"... Fine. Depending on how badly your teammates are hurt, I'll ask for a second token. Let's go."

Kigane looked like she wanted to protest, but in the end her worry for her teammates won and she sighed. "Alright. I think it was this way?"

Sasuke nodded absently and let the blonde go first, still watching Sakura. She stood with her shoulders drawn back proudly, her fingers curled into loose fists, and she stared at the other kunoichi with that razor-sharp suspicion that dared her to try anything. Scowling darkly, she took a step forward.

Sasuke thought he rather approved of Sakura like this, irritated and possessive and determined not to give an inch.

He was standing a little lower than her on the slope, and her bare shoulder was there, and there was no one to see, so he kissed it, and then when she blinked at him in surprise, he smiled a little bit.

* * *

**(Naruto)**

Man, how Sasuke expected him to track down those guys when the whole area had just been flushed with saltwater, he didn't know. Naruto kept running down the canyon anyway, assuming they wouldn't have wasted time climbing up just yet. Maybe he wouldn't need a scent trail; he could see skid marks through wet moss here and there, and a few overturned rocks... A few freshly broken, as if the sword guy had hit and missed. No blood on the ground, though. Well, that was good.

He couldn't hear anything but the wind over the rocks and the waves on the beach. The canyon broke open on a narrow band of thick sand that the waves lapped at. Cursing under his breath, Naruto squinted and looked around for a clue. If there were tracks in the sand, they had been erased already -- what was that?

Naruto trotted down the beach, sticking close to the cliff. Foam frothed around his ankles, sneaking gritty, thick sand in between his toes.

The rock was dark, but Naruto could see and smell the splash of red on it, not yet washed off by the sea. A few feet farther, a stretch of damp sand still sported footprints.

He found the cave soon after. It started like any other canyon, but after a few feet, the walls started leaning into each other, to meet in a twisty, narrow tunnel. The guy wouldn't have much space to swing his sword there, Naruto assumed, but unless there were several exits, Jin was pretty much trapped. He stalked inside, clambering over the boulders on the ground.

"It's dark as Kyuubi's ass in there," he muttered as he passed the first bend. The tunnel was long, and awkward to navigate, but eventually the cave widened a little, and he fell into an easy crouch. It stank of bird shit and decaying seaweed and dead fish, and his eyes watered. "Urgh! Almost as stinky, too."

He didn't see or smell anyone nearby; but he had a strange feeling, like that dead cave was a little _too _still. Like maybe they'd been playing cat and mouse in the dark, and of course they'd noticed him coming. Hard not to, when there was no way to prevent his body blocking some of the light. Well, in that case...

"HEEYY! JIIN!"

The echoes deafened him. The cave was a lot bigger on the inside. He crawled farther down the tunnel before the echoes died, so the sounds he made as he moved would be covered. He was almost flat on the ground; a good move, because a second later a handful of shuriken struck the wall over his head.

He tried to listen for movement, but there were dripping sounds inside, and the soft whisper of wavelets licking a shore. Great, so there was water inside, too. Better not fall in it, there was no way to tell how deep it was, or how full with slippery seaweed. Naruto slowly crawled along the ground, trying to breathe past the stink to find Jin's scent.

He found the smell of blood first. It was powerful enough to be easily recognizable, even over all the rot and decay; he followed it, despite not knowing which of the two it belonged to.

When a hand pressed against his lips, he didn't think; he bit down. The body beside him tensed up, and he heard a quiet intake of breath. A second later, the scent registered as vaguely familiar; not the person itself, so much as indefinable traces of having lived in Konoha. Apologetic, he loosened his jaw. He could taste blood just under the skin.

Jin pressed his fist against the top of Naruto's head and gave him an irritated little shove, pushing him down. Naruto hunkered down, feeling around cautiously. The boy appeared to be hiding under an overhanging bit of rock. Naruto closed his eyes and breathed in, trying to catch another scent, but the Rock guy was too far away for his smell to reach Naruto over all the stinky things inside the cave.

He lifted his head, squinting, wishing his eyes to adapt faster to the almost total darkness. Jin hadn't been touching him to notice, but he pushed it down almost immediately. Jin's hand stayed atop Naruto's head, and he leaned closer, as if trying to be ready to use his whole body to pin down Naruto if he tried it again.

"You can see me?" Naruto mouthed soundlessly, his cheek pressed against the damp ground.

He felt a nod, a jaw brushing against his temple. Jin had to see him real well, to read his lips in the dark. Naruto started smiling.

"Can he see us?"

A no, this time. Jin's lips brushed his ear, and he breathed a few words, so softly Naruto wasn't sure he'd really heard. "Listens real well, though."

Naruto frowned a little. Hrrm. Okay, the guy would hear them coming. ...That was okay. Naruto was pretty sure anyone with working ears could hear him, anyway, and that had never bothered him before.

"Where?" he mouthed when Jin leaned back.

Jin took Naruto's wrist and pointed his hand in the right direction, slowly tracking silent movements. Naruto realized belatedly that there was a boulder in between them and the guy. Huh. Maybe Jin was an illegitimate Hyuuga or something.

"Obstacles?"

Jin paused, as if considering the wisdom of telling Naruto, before leaning in and whispering again, pointing Naruto's hand toward said obstacles; "Rocks, waist-high. Pond. Fish inside."

Naruto snorted quietly, and could almost feel the tangible disapproval coming from his companion.

"With stingers," he enunciated, barely any louder.

Naruto didn't know whether it had been his snort or Jin's voice that prompted it; but suddenly Jin clambered over his body and ran away, just as Naruto recognized the quick, soft slapping sounds as someone running at them barefoot.

He rolled back, making no attempt at being quiet now. His hands slapped together in a familiar seal. "Jin! Where?!"

"Front-left!" the boy shrieked; sparks flashed as a kunai he'd lifted from Naruto struck the enemy's blade and incidentally revealed his position to the Rock ninja. But the guy was only a lunge and a slash away from Naruto.

Naruto grinned a fangy grin and completed the seal.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"

A dozen clones mobbed the ninja, tackling him to the ground. A few exploded as he slashed wildly at them, but Naruto just made more to replace them, so much that he had to step back to stay clear of the melee. He didn't want to trip on anything nasty and end up in the pond.

Jin's hand found his shoulder and squeezed hard. "... How many -- _shit_."

Naruto grinned wider. "Looks like we're done here. You got some rope?"

"Uh -- yeah. How many did you -- they're not all real, right?"

Naruto snickered. "Sure they are."

"... Hell... You told us you'd fought Gaara of the Sand, but we didn't _believe _you..."

Naruto preened, and then made an outraged face that he hoped Jin could see. "Hey! I'm not a liar."

"Well, no, but everyone boasts--"

"I," Naruto said proudly, drawing himself up, "don't _need_ to boast."

Then the Rock nin swept his feet through three bunshins and almost managed to pull free of the melee, and Naruto had to join in and got clipped on the jaw for his trouble. Ow. Stubborn bastard.

The guy struggled, swearing at them. Tying him up in the dark proved rather difficult; Naruto had to dissipate two of his bunshins that had gotten tangled up by mistake, which gave the Rock nin just enough slack to start punching around again.

Huffing in irritation, Jin waded through -- the bunshins could feel his slim body pushing forward -- and... did something. The Rock ninja's body went slack a few seconds later, mystifying Naruto. He felt for his pulse, for a second fearing that Jin had poisoned him.

"What did you do?"

"Trade secret," Jin muttered tiredly.

Naruto snorted. "Oi, I just saved your ass."

"Fine! It's just a sleeping powder. When it's wet, you can paste it on skin and it goes right through and into the bloodstream. Happy? Let's get out of here."

... Brr. Note to self, don't let Jin stick anything paste-like or wet to his skin. Naruto tied up the guy anyway, hoisting him on his shoulder.

"Oh, just leave him here, he can always cut the rope on the rocks."

Naruto shrugged, and turned to face the area where a faint, useless glow signaled the tunnel. "I'm not sure how high the tides get. What if he drowns before he wakes up?"

"What --" Jin spluttered. "He tried to _gut_ me! To cut off my head! To cut off my HAIR, do you know how long I spent growing that shit, do you think I want to wear a stupid wig ever again -- shit! 'Wouldn't want him to drown,' you say! _I_ wouldn't mind."

"Hey!" Naruto snapped. "You damn well better be joking."

Jin didn't answer. Growling in disgust, Naruto stomped his way toward the exit. His foot slipped in something muddy, and tepid water sloshed up his pant leg as he stumbled, but he was annoyed enough that he just growled and pulled himself up, refusing to surrender to gravity and dump his captive in the pond.

The other boy followed in sullen silence, though after the first time Naruto tripped on some kind of stalactite -- or was that a stalagmite, he could never remember -- Jin condescended to step up and guide him by the elbow. Naruto noticed Jin never did fully take into account the mass of the ninja on his shoulder when he led the way to the tunnel. Poor guy would have a headache and funny bruises when he woke up. Naruto didn't say anything, because, well, yes, after all, said poor guy had come after an unarmed boy with a very big, very sharp sword, and that wasn't really fair at all.

"...What happened to Beni and Kigane?" Jin asked as the faint ambient light started allowing Naruto to get an idea of where he was stepping once again.

Naruto's anger abated at the badly hidden worry in his voice. "My teammates went to help them. Kigane's fine, I think she got a sprained wrist but that's it. Not sure about Beni, I didn't see her. Sorry," Naruto added quietly, thinking about how worried he'd be if it was Sasuke and Sakura he'd had to leave behind bleeding. Hell, he rectified, he wouldn't have left them behind at all. But still.

"... Oh. Okay. Thanks." Jin sighed, wobbling a little on his feet.

"Uh, but Sasuke didn't seem to think she was dying or anything!" Naruto hurried to reassure him. He hit the ass of the guy he was carrying against the wall and almost lost his balance.

Jin paused briefly, and then gave a quiet, strangely subdued chuckle. "Thank you."

He wouldn't thank Naruto if he knew what exactly Sasuke qualified as 'okay.' Sasuke standards just weren't sane people standards at times. "Eh, I didn't to anything."

"You didn't?" Jin asked, slightly ironic. "Because I was under the impression that you kind of saved my life there."

"Well, I meant, not for your teammate." Shit, now Naruto was starting to blush. He hoped Jin couldn't see that. "So, um, how d'you see in the dark like that? Do you have the Byakugan or something?"

Jin's silence gained a frosty edge.

"...No."

"Oh, 'cause I think you have pupils, and all, but I thought, maybe you were -- ow! Hey, what was that for?"

"I'm a Kagami, thank you very much." Jin puffed up, not that he looked much bigger. "Not some other clan's bastard. We're just as old and noble as they are!"

"I've never heard of you guys," Naruto replied candidly, and then realized there was just enough light to see Jin's death glare. He shrugged as best as he could. "Eh, I don't pay attention to that kind of stuff. Okay, you're from an old clan. So, the eyes?"

Jin sighed tiredly, and considered him a few seconds, before taking the lead. He only started talking when he was a few steps ahead. "It's a combination of photographic memory, great night vision, ability to zoom in on very small details, and things like that."

"... Yeah?"

Jin muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath. "Basically, we can see reflections in reflections, even when the 'mirror' is tiny. The cave is full of mica," he added, a hand brushing against the stone. Tiny faceted crystals sparkled weakly in the light. Naruto hadn't really noticed on the way in. "It gives a very low-grade image, but still good enough to catch movement."

So as long as there was something to reflect it into something else that reflects it to them, they could see it? Naruto pulled the prisoner up on his shoulders and slowed down to cross a tricky part of the tunnel. He had to admit, it sounded convenient. "...But still, if there's a wall in the middle, you're fucked. Byakugan still tops."

Jin sent him a dirty look, and for a moment Naruto thought he was going to snap back, but the boy closed his eyes briefly and kept silent, dragging his feet out of the cave.

The waves covered the beach by now. Naruto squinted against the sun's glare, and waded after Jin toward the nearest canyon. White, foamy water massed around their calves.

The guy on his shoulders was getting heavy. Naruto huffed in annoyance and considered climbing up the cliff right now, but if the guy's last teammate spotted him and charged and he had to fight again, Sakura would have his hide. With a sigh, he sped up a little.

He didn't say anything the first and second time Jin tripped, but by the third time he was starting to wonder. "... You okay?"

"Ah -- just a little tired."

"You're exhausted from just one chase? Huh. Did they start hunting you guys at dawn or something?"

Jin twitched and glared at him, and once again Naruto thought he was going to get snapped at, but the boy obviously had a little more control than some other people Naruto knew. He glanced at Naruto, and then stared down.

The ground was a little tricky, sloping up to the canyon mouth, with waves lapping at their ankles, stealing away the sand under their heels and hiding rocks and branches under its foam. Jin rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his hand and slumped wearily. "... It's been a long day."

Obviously, 'train more' wasn't going to help much. "Well, er. Sucks."

The Rock nin on Naruto's shoulder squirmed weakly, unbalancing him, and Naruto spent a few seconds trying to keep his footing on wet sand. Grumbling, he hurried toward the bunch of dry seaweed that marked the upper tide limit.

"... Nnrhgh..."

"Aw hell. Jin, how long is your paste supposed to last?"

The boy swore between his clenched teeth. "Depends on metabolism. Dump him and let's go!"

Naruto growled at him, flashing his teeth. "I already told you no."

"But it's not even the highest tides!"

"I don't care -- aw, shit." The guy was squirming more now, nothing too bad yet, but it didn't help Naruto's balance much. Naruto veered toward a boulder that seemed to him like it would stand over the water, and tried to sit the guy in a crevice toward the top. It was awkward enough to unload the Rock ninja, so heavy and limp and frustrating with his floppiness, but it wasn't half as awkward as when the guy opened a blurry eye just as Naruto started feeling him up.

Naruto gave a guilty grin. "Uh. Token? Hey, I beat you fair and square."

The guy blinked fuzzily at Naruto, making a faint grimace -- and then his eyes latched onto something behind Naruto and he sneered and tried to lurch forward. The drugs were still acting, and the ropes were tight, so he barely flopped a little before falling back in the crevice.

"Huh?" Naruto looked over his shoulder. Jin stood there, shoulders hunched, as if trying to hide behind him.

"... Gimme mah -- mah ... 'm token back... Little bitch thief..."

Naruto blinked and watched the Rock ninja squirm. Well, he was kinda well-stuck for now. He wasn't gonna get free for a while. Naruto shrugged and jumped off the rock, holding out his hand to Jin. "Oh well, if you're the one who's got it. Pony up!"

The boy looked displeased, but he fished it out of his armband and handed it over. Grinning, Naruto stuffed it in his pocket and started walking.

He'd taken a dozen steps already by the time he noticed the way the other boy trailed behind. Eyes averted, shoulders a little slumped, Jin followed unenthusiastically. Naruto grimaced. "Hey, what are you moping about now?"

"I'm not moping!"

"Is it because I took that guy's token?"

Jin glared at him, and then deflated in a way Naruto found extremely alarming. "... No... You're right, you beat him and you saved me, you deserve it... It's not that."

Where was the yelling back and the hitting? Gah. Like Naruto knew anything about being comforting. Well, he could comfort Sakura just fine, but that usually implied cuddling and flirting, and, well, no. He risked a friendly tap on Jin's shoulder, and winced as the boy's lighter body was propelled forward. "Uh, sorry." Gah. What kind of man couldn't take a little back-slapping?

Jin sighed and shook his head. "... It's fine. It just helps driving it home some more."

"Uh, driving what?"

Jin looked away, making a vague hand gesture that Naruto had no clue how to interpret. "I'm so freaking _girly_." His voice was quiet, somber, so Naruto refrained from mentioning that Sakura was plenty girly and could still smash boulders into tiny little pieces. Not to mention Granny Tsunade and Gaara's scary sister. "I can't defend myself. I can't defend my teammates. I have to sneak around behind people's backs and flirt and be _pretty_ --"

The boy took in a ragged breath, and Naruto winced, took a step closer. Damn it. he could inspire people just fine, but comfort them? Not a clue. "Aw, come on, man -- you, uh, you have your sleeping paste thing? And your eyes, it's good, you can see people coming --"

"And when they come I can't do anything to stop them!" The boy looked up at him, light gray eyes full of frustration and a hint of pain. "And Beni got injured and I have no clue how bad, and I couldn't do anything to shield Ki -- shit." Jin kicked a rock, and hung his head. His hair fell in sleek strands over his face, hiding his eyes from view. "How can I call myself a man when I can't do anything for them?"

Naruto winced again. Yeah, that he could understand, he thought. Being powerless, watching his precious people get hurt -- that had to be the most horrible feeling in the world. "Well, um, nothing says you've got to be a spy all your life, right? I mean, you'll have a growth spurt eventually, so you might as well start training now? Right? Uh, your teacher will understand if you explain it to him?"

Jin's hands trembled minutely, and he clenched them into fists. His shoulders shook briefly. Naruto flailed in alarm and grabbed them, trying to make the boy look up at him.

Instead, Jin bowed his head, pressed his forehead against Naruto's chest, just under his collarbone, and took in a shuddering breath. Naruto froze. Silken hair brushed his arm, and puffs of shaky breath warmed his t-shirt. Shit, shit, shit, what should he do? Anything he'd do for Sasuke or Sakura was non-applicable, and his buddies -- for Shika he'd just sit down beside him and wait; if Chouji did, Naruto would get Shika for him; Kiba'd never break down and lose face -- a punch to the shoulder would work; Lee -- maybe back-patting would...

He gave Jin's narrow back a cautious pat. The boy shuddered and moved a little closer. He seemed even smaller like this, curled up, as if asking for Naruto's protection.

That or comfort sex.

Except he didn't smell like sex. And not that much like distress either, actually, now that Naruto was paying attention to his scent. Naruto sighed, placed a hand on Jin's shoulder, and gave a warning squeeze.

"Oi, Jin. This hand had better be going for my ass and not for my token." Because a 'not interested, sorry' would hurt Jin a lot less than a punch in the face.

* * *

**(Sakura)**

Sakura hadn't been in any kind of suiting frame of mind, so when she felt Sasuke's lips on her shoulder at first she didn't even get it. There were a few seconds of _blank_ as her thoughts screeched to a stop, derailed from jealous anger to a kind of shocked little thrill.

Sasuke had just kissed her. It had been genuine -- approval and affection -- and entirely spontaneous. And, oh, she didn't even know where to start wondering.

So she wasn't really paying attention when Sasuke took point to direct them where the last of the kunoichi trio had fallen. But when the curly-haired blonde slowed down to her side, well, Sakura wasn't about to act grossly unprofessional in front of her, and like hell she would let the annoying girl see her flustered. Thankfully, she was pretty sure Kigane's back had been turned for the kiss...

Her unfriendly sideway look didn't seem to faze Kigane any. "So." The blonde smiled. "I just wanted to make sure, so I don't step on your toes again... Are you and Naruto-kun going out, or what?"

Sakura's eyelid twitched, her elation entirely snuffed out. Was Kigane trying to get in her good graces via _girl talk_? After that stunt with cuddling up to Naruto, all 'ooh, you big strong male, take me in your arms, protect me...' Urgh!

"I didn't even think you two might -- I mean, there was this rumor about you and another girl and the shower room, so I kind of assumed..."

Sakura's face caught on fire, and with it her only chance to categorically deny any of it. "H-how do you -- what makes you think I --"

Kigane waved a hand in denial as she trotted at Sakura's side. "Oh, please, there aren't many kunoichis with pink hair around the island, you know. Well, there's one with magenta and I think another with peach, but it was more orangeish."

This time, Sakura paled. "You thought I was a _lesbian_?!"

A few steps ahead, Sasuke's foot skipped on a stone and he almost messed up his landing. Sakura's mortification reached new heights.

"Come on, two girls, one shower stall, funny noises..."

Sasuke's shoulders twitched in a suspicious way and he made a quiet snorting noise. Sakura briefly wished to die.

Kigane caught sight of Sakura's face and winced, lifting her hands defensively. "Oh, there's nothing wrong about being a lesbian! Some of my good friends are lesbians. I mean, alright, like I told Naruto-kun, a Chuunin exam isn't the best place to come out, but..."

"I'm not a lesbian!"

Sasuke stopped pretending not to listen to the conversation, looking over his shoulder. Sakura looked away quickly, aware that she was blushing once again.

"Naruto came out, huh?" He quirked an eyebrow at the blonde. "When'd that happen?"

"Oh, we were just joking!" Kigane paused. "...I think."

Sasuke's lips twitched downward. Sakura knew Sasuke's expressions intimately, and this one only happened when he was trying to repress a smile. Curse him.

"Naruto's not ga -- not a girl! Crossdresser. Lesbian. Thing."

Kigane blinked innocently. "Transexual?"

"Yes -- no! He's not. He's a hundred percent man. He was just -- it was a henge. In the shower."

"Oooooh. Things _totally_ make sense now."

Sakura, once upon a time, had been prepared to say there was nothing that would ever make her want to bite Sasuke. Or punch him a little. That was before she caught similar 'I'm not going to laugh, I'm not going to laugh' twitches on both his face and that boyfriend-stealing bimbo's.

She could have snarled something back -- something she would have regretted later, such as 'shouldn't you worry less about a stranger's sex life and more about how your teammate is bleeding out on those rocks?' -- but then she caught sight of the teammate in question, and her foolish embarrassment disappeared, along with any intention of making light of the situation.

"Sasuke. Perimeter check," she snapped without looking away from the prone girl, all joking forgotten. "You, come with me." Sakura leaped up the series of jutting boulders, going straight for the unmoving body caught on the slope.

The trail of gravel and torn plants was clear, as was the blood tracked down the slope; if the girl hadn't managed -- or been lucky enough -- to get her spear's butt stuck in a crack and wedge her body underneath, she would have slid all the way down to the bottom. Or at least all the way to the closest sharp-edged boulders. The way the brunette lay curled around the wood shaft, Sakura hoped the impact hadn't been violent enough to break her floating ribs.

"Beni-chan!" All elegance or daintiness forgotten, the blonde scrambled up to her teammate on hands and feet, kicking up dust and loose pebbles.

There was nothing to easily stick to; a shallow chakra hold would only mean more earth and small rocks would come down with you. Sakura spread her area of contact, reaching down vertically with her chakra so she could get to the packed earth underneath.

"Don't touch her." She stepped up slowly, making sure of every hold. Kigane slid back down, bumping against her leg. Sakura's hold strained for a second as rocks shifted under her heel, and then stabilized. "... There. Don't move. Beni? I'm a medic-nin." Sakura's heartbeat sped up for a second. She wasn't -- she just wasn't, not yet. But she had some training, and that would have to be enough. "I'm going to touch you now."

She leaned forward, placing the back of her hand against the brunette's lips. For a second, she didn't feel anything, and then there was a puff of breath. Another. She counted.

"She's breathing," she said neutrally. No red foam at her lips. Hopefully her lungs were fine. "Kigane, I need you to find another hold. You're in my way."

The blonde moved to the side and skidded down to the closest rock -- laughably easy to control, for one who wasn't already injured. Beni really hadn't needed any of those wounds aggravated. Sakura braced herself for what she might find, and moved closer, pulling off her gloves and tucking them in her belt pouch.

First, check up the skeleton. Green haloed her hands, which she ran lightly over the girl's skull -- no swelling in her brain; good -- down her shoulders and dangling legs. She had to reach up and over to be able to check on her spine -- no break, no swelling. Sakura breathed a little more easily. The ribs were more difficult to access, with how Beni curled on her side around the spear, but Sakura reached her chakra farther until she could have a clear image of them. She found a crack; they'd have to be careful not to let it splinter, Sakura had never learned how to heal bones and she wasn't willing to wing it. No, she was only sure of herself with flesh wounds.

She had her work cut out for her. The girl had been stabbed just over the hip, her arms and legs showed more abrasions than whole skin, one of her knees was sprained, and her abdomen was one giant, painfully deep bruise. Sakura looked up at Sasuke, perched at the top of the hill. "Her spine is fine. We'll move her. Kigane, try to prepare somewhere comfortable up there."

The girl opened her mouth to speak, but in the end she went, her face a picture of worry. Sasuke came down the side, to avoid showering them in dust, and joined Sakura. She'd caught the flash of Sharingan, so she wasn't surprised when he grasped the way she held steady on the loose soil right away. Cheater.

"How?"

Sakura pulled the light canvas they used to ward off the rain out of her pouch as she considered it. She wasn't sure; Tsunade had never covered it. Beni's position wasn't the best. They couldn't roll her on her back since it was uphill and she would slide right out of the improvised stretcher, and if she rolled downhill, she would fall face down on her cracked ribs and injured arms before she rolled on her back again.

"We'll slip that between her and the spear, try to get it under her as much as possible, then we block her body with our legs and the cloth and pull the spear out... Then we'll see. Her ribs are cracked, so be careful," she cautioned.

Sasuke worked Beni's legs in the folded stretcher in silence, following Sakura's slow and cautious lead.

"That's where I'm missing Naruto," she commented quietly. "It would be so much easier with you two holding the ends, we could make her slide right in." She looked up; she didn't think Kigane's arms were strong enough to hold steady, and she didn't trust the girl's chakra hold either. Oh, it wasn't too difficult for anyone who knew how to water-walk, but Sakura wasn't prepared to risk it just yet.

Eventually, Beni was loaded on the improvised stretcher, laying straight enough that Sakura wasn't afraid they'd break her ribs. They carried her up. Kigane had prepared a hollow, up where the slope softened, kicked rocks away and pulled grass and leaves to cushion the ground a bit.

Kigane sank to her knees beside her teammates, a hand on her mouth as she took in the drying blood and abraded skin. "Oh, oh Beni-chan..." she whispered, caressing the brunette's forehead lightly.

"Most of that is skin-deep," Sakura commented dispassionately as she crouched on the other side of the unconscious girl. "Do you have any water? It needs to be cleaned."

Kigane pulled a gourd out of her skin pouch and handed it to Sakura, who frowned slightly as it sloshed. Not a lot of water left, but she wasn't going to use her own water to clean up a rival.

The stab wound was mostly clean, but she made sure no dirt stuck to the lips of the wound before she started working on closing it. "Try getting the gravel out," she told the other girl absently. "As much of it as you can."

Kigane's eyes roamed over the larges stretches of scratches, dust and blood stuck together around shredded bandages. She sucked in her breath, and nodded. "... Okay."

Sakura spared an uncharitable thought on the girl's uneasy silence and vaguely green face -- it was a cruel thought, but this Kigane was much better than the Kigane giggling in Naruto's ear -- and pushed her awareness of anything but the wound out of her mind.

Beni woke up at some point, but Kigane petted her hair until she relaxed again. She didn't make a sound. Sakura sealed the last of the stab wound and started picking out gravel and washing off various debris.

"Stupid bandages... 'sposed to prevent that..."

Sakura arched an eyebrow and picked cloth fibers out of a scabbing scratch; Beni was in enough general pain that she didn't notice the twinge. "It would have been a lot worse without them." She eyed the girl's skin thoughtfully. A lot of the damage was on the same side, where she'd slid; the rest was just a couple of scratches. She nudged Beni to lean on that side and started in on what she could reach of her back. "I'll close the ones that might scar, but I can't waste the chakra needed to close everything."

There had been internal bruising to fix, too. That one, Tsunade hadn't exactly taught her -- but it was close enough to flesh mending for her purposes. She'd been careful.

"Can't do anything for your ribs, though. We'll bandage them tight, but you'll have to pay attention."

Beni grunted and closed her eyes. Sakura wasn't sure she was in any state to listen, but hopefully Kigane would remind her.

Picking out gravel was a long, painstaking process, and a rather gross one at that. Sakura would have blood under her nails for days, she just knew it, and there were so many little bits of flesh and flaps of skin that only held by a string. It didn't really bother her, not until Kigane found a pot of salve to combat infection in Beni's pack.

The salve was a creamy white paste, one whose components were known to Sakura, all perfectly safe and appropriate.

The scent hit her nose, and suddenly she could smell everything, the thick, cloying salve that seemed to gather at the back of her mouth, the sourness of the binding agent, and the heavy smell of raw meat. Human meat.

Very professionally, Sakura sat back on her heels, wiped her hands on a length of bandage, swiveled around in a precise half-circle, and threw up.

Sasuke was at her side in an instant. "Sakura?"

"It's nothing," she said, and sipped a mouthful of water to rinse her teeth.

Sasuke moved loose earth over the incriminating spot with his foot, dampening the stink of stomach acid. He stepped a little closer, his leg brushing her shoulder. "Are you sure?"

Sakura spared a little smile for him. "Uh huh. Just, you know."

Sasuke's eyes softened a little, and his voice went quiet, a little teasing. "Bothersome. It's not even morning."

Sakura chuckled a little and rubbed at her temples. She was lower on chakra than she'd thought. She turned back to the wounded. Kigane was still holding the pot, staring at her.

"... Uh. Has it gone bad?"

"No, it's fine," Sakura said, and hoped she wouldn't have to explain herself.

"Are you sick -- oh! By 'morning,' you meant..." Kigane's vaguely interested expression became confused, and a lot more serious. "... You're _pregnant_?"

... Damn it. Sasuke's voice hadn't been quiet enough. Why wasn't she paying attention to her teammate, damn it? Alright, maybe keeping on applying a salve that made your medic throw up was a bad idea...

"Yes," Sakura growled, and hoped her tone was forbidding enough. It wasn't any of Kigane's business. "The salve. Are you trying to have it dry out?"

"--Oh, right."

Kigane started applying it on clean scratches again; Sakura went back to cleaning dirty areas. "Don't put it on too thick," she commented neutrally, though she still frowned. She had absolutely zero interest in becoming _friends _with that team. Especially Kigane.

"D'you start thinking of names yet?"

Sakura stared down at Beni, who lay stiff and wincing, and grinned ruefully at her.

"Uh. What?"

Beni's features were strained with pain and exhaustion, but she managed a little smirk anyway. "Baby. Names?"

Kigane blinked and smiled too. "Oh, that's right! I mean, you're not very far along right now, I don't think? It doesn't show. But maybe you've thought about it anyway?"

Sasuke twitched and retreated to a boulder a dozen steps away. Sakura barely noticed; she was still trying to get her brain in gear.

Baby... Names? ... For the... baby?

... For her child?

... Oh. _Oh_.

She'd forgotten a little, she thought, that it wasn't only a growing lump of cells that made her get sick and demanded so many difficult sacrifices. It was a little person-to-be, too.

It needed -- he or she needed -- a name, too. A name to represent them -- him, her.

"Uh, doc?" Beni said, tone dry and amused. Sakura blinked down at her uncomprehendingly. "That's still attached."

Sakura looked down at her hand, and realized she was trying to pull out some skin along with the bit of straw stuck there. "Oh crap, I'm sorry! I didn't mean --"

"Eh, hurts everywhere right now. 'S okay."

Sakura cringed guiltily. It was because Beni hurt everywhere that she shouldn't make it worse! Sakura feathered soothing green chakra along Beni's side, closing more scratches as an apology. The girl relaxed a little, closing her eyes to enjoy the momentary relief.

"Where's Jin?"

Sakura took the salve from Kigane and started applying to Beni's legs as the blonde updated her friends on everything that happened from the moment she was knocked down and left behind. Sakura pretended not to listen, offering them some privacy as her mind kept running. A baby, a child, a person. Sakura felt dizzy. One day a teenager, and then her age, older even...

"And then we came back and found you pinned to the side of the hill, my god, don't ever scare me like that again." Kigane shot an angry look at Sasuke, who barely deigned to glance back before he turned his attention back on their surroundings. "... _Someone_ could have taken a second to pull you up before you fell," she told Beni, who chuckled and immediately regretted it.

"Oww. S'okay, Ki-chan..."

"She should have been fine," Sasuke said, glancing at them over his shoulder. From him, Sakura knew it was almost an apology, an acknowledgement that his assessment had been wrong. Kigane's eyes narrowed.

"Yeah, there was a big rock underneath," Beni acknowledged easily. "Just wasn't rooted as deep as it looked, I guess."

"Hrrm. Still."

"Two seconds later and I would have arrived in time to see that guy cut you in two," Sasuke said, vaguely annoyed. "You'd rather I had wasted the time?"

Kigane bristled.

"And since we're talking about unpleasant things anyway," Sakura cut her off before an argument could explode, "This taxed a lot more of my chakra than I can casually spare. So that will be two tokens."

The blonde really didn't look as friendly and easily approachable when she glared, stiff with offense. "Her ribs are still broken and she can't even walk! That's not worth two tokens."

Sakura's eyes narrowed. She didn't need to break eye contact to know that Sasuke was slowly moving to stand at her back, silent, his presence enough of a threat that he didn't need to say a thing.

"Kigane-san," Sakura said, and smiled as gently as she could fake. She was out of patience with her, and with that nausea and the baby talk and the chakra depletion and everything else. "You can either give us the second token, or we can take it. We're not willing to see other Konoha ninjas die, but that's as far as we're going to be taken advantage of."

"And you think she won't die, if she has to lay here for a week waiting for the test to end?! She can't even breathe without pain!"

Sakura scowled, false smile melting off. "Fine. I can't fix her ribs. I'll throw in a healing for either the knee or the skin. Your choice, Beni. Be aware I can't fix the knee entirely. Muscles and skin are one thing, ligaments another. It still won't heal entirely without rest."

She looked down at the exhausted brunette, who watched them fight with an air of weary cynicism.

"... Knee. Rather be able to move. Gotta hike."

Kigane gave her a worried look, but ultimately nodded, though with visible reluctance. "Fine. A second token."

Sasuke was frowning, as if asking 'are you sure?' Sakura nodded and gave him a brief smile. She was going to be tired, but nothing huge. She just wasn't willing to drain herself to the brink of exhaustion for anyone not part of Team Seven. She still had some leeway.

"Okay. Hand them over first."

Unhappily, Kigane fished a little purse out of her obi-like belt and handed two of the copper disks inside to her. Sakura stuffed them in her pocket, noticing without surprise that she'd lied when she told them Jin was the one keeping them for the team.

Healing the knee took a little more concentration than she'd hoped; ligaments were complex things. Still, she pushed herself to the limits of Tsunade's teachings, because she had her pride, damn it.

Besides, there would still be the cracked ribs and general soreness to make sure they didn't try to backstab Team Seven.

She hadn't really been aware that Sasuke was a little tense; but she noticed when he relaxed. "Here comes Naruto. Not too soon," he added with fake annoyance.

For a second she wondered what kind of baby names he would prefer. Sakura nodded, and kept working. It wasn't the right time for those thoughts.

Almost done... Almost... There! When she sat up in triumph and wiped her forehead, Naruto was standing at her side and looking mildly concerned. She took him in quickly -- no wounds, though he would heal fast on his own, no torn clothes. It seemed to have gone easily. Clothes dirty, hair in disarray, Jin looked a little frazzled, but more grouchy than injured.

He wouldn't look Naruto in the eye. Oh, who cared. Naruto was back, he was safe, and he'd gotten the boy back safe and sound. Sakura climbed up on her feet and smiled. "What took you so long, slowpoke?"

She was pretty sure all his baby names would be utterly ridiculous. She looked forward to hearing them, almost enough to forgive him the bathroom lesbian fiasco.

She kept smiling up until Sasuke stepped up to them, stone-faced, and plucked a single meter-long, smoke-gray hair off their boyfriend's T-shirt.

It could have been meaningless. They'd been in a fight; accidental crashes happened. Naruto could have picked Jin up to throw him to safety. Hell, Jin could have been combing his hair in an air draft, with Naruto at the other end.

But none of it would have made Naruto cringe.

He didn't look guilty, though, he looked a little pained, as if knowing what this looked like, and having no good defense, and already bracing himself for the backlash.

"... Argh!" Sakura snarled, whirling to face the little trio. "First that blonde bimbo, and now you!" She slapped her fist into her palm, but Sasuke's shoulder checked her before she could think about pouncing. How could he not be livid? She was livid! "I swear if you two ever put the moves on Naruto again ...! And _you_." Sakura pointed. Beni blinked. "I fixed your body, I can break it again!"

"Chill, I'm not interested." Sakura narrowed her eyes suspiciously; Beni chuckled weakly. "I don't date guys who are smaller than me."

Sakura huffed and crossed her arms. Naruto touched her shoulder, and made a little grimace. "Sakura-chan -- I didn't --"

"I know you didn't, but _he _did!"

"Well, um, it's kind of his job..."

Turning to glare down Naruto with his stupid, undermining _honor_ and _facts _that were getting in the way of her righteous anger, Sakura didn't understand what Sasuke was doing at first, when he stepped closer and touched her hip.

Then, as he lifted his prize in the air, she wondered how she had inherited one of Jin's hair.

Except it wasn't a hair. It was way too thin, floated more like spider-web, and almost entirely transparent.

... It also came from her pocket. The one where she'd stuffed their newly gained tokens. And as Sasuke gently tugged on the ... hair, strand, wire, the tokens slipped free, dangling from the sticky tip of the wire.

Kigane gave them a sheepish grin. "Hey, I had to try, right?"

* * *

Four copper tokens chimed in Sasuke's hand as he strolled casually in the general direction of the lighthouse in the distance. Sakura stomped along at his side, more than ready to leave the kunoichi team far, far behind. Naruto was still grinning in relief of not having been blamed, and she felt a little bad for that, for him thinking they trusted him so little.

"Sakura, Naruto, you still have yours?"

Sakura was pretty sure that if anyone had tried to get at her breasts, she would have noticed, but she checked for her personal token anyway, brushing her hand discreetly against the underside of her bra. She got a leer from Naruto for her trouble. "... I have mine."

Naruto tapped his forehead protector. "Got mine too. I'm gonna have a circle branded on my forehead in the end, I swear."

"Plus their three, plus that Rock ninja's... Only two more to get," Sasuke commented as he threw one new token each to his teammates. Sakura snatched hers up and turned away so that Naruto couldn't ogle as she slipped it in her bra. She'd forgotten Sasuke could, and she blushed, but at least the glance he snuck down her top was more discreet.

"Heh. We rule!" Naruto lifted a fist in victory, then slouched a little. "Still, I feel kind of evil, for ruining their chances like that. We shoulda targeted another team, one not from our village..."

"They deserved it for not knowing when to quit," Sakura growled. "We saved their skins and fixed them, and they still tried to trick us. There's a difference between being generous and being a sucker."

Sasuke shrugged. "They would have been eliminated anyway. Just with more blood."

"Hey, you don't know that," Naruto replied halfheartedly.

Sasuke rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Know what? If we end up with too many tokens, you're welcome to offer the surplus to random losers."

"Except it will mean more enemies for the tournament," Sakura commented. Naruto and Sasuke gave her a look like she was missing the point.

"That's bad how?"

"That's supposed to be bad?"

They blinked at each other and gave each other half-serious glares. Sakura sighed heavily and allowed them to lead the way. Men.

Now that she was a little less angry, she did feel slightly bad for snatching the token bag out of Kigane's hand and declaring it payment for use of Naruto, and for trying to fool them again after they'd gone out of their way to save their teammates' lives. Well, Beni probably wouldn't have died, but she would have gotten an infection and spent a few more weeks recovering, at the very least. And maybe the Rock guy would have only beat Jin up instead of gutting him... And Sakura was tired, and cranky, and hungry except she was also feeling slightly sick again. And pregnant. She felt pregnant, too, not that she would have had a clue how to describe it, whether it was a physical sensation or a passing mood brought about by another chemical imbalance or purely in her head.

She lifted a hand to her belly, felt for the almost invisible curve there. "... Hey, guys..."

Sasuke and Naruto paused and turned to look at her, puzzled by her soft tone.

"For a girl, what do you think of Nadeshiko?"


	17. TW3 chpt5: Foxes

_Name info: Nadeshiko: a type of fringed, pink flower; Soba: thin noodles; Miso: __type of flavoring; -ko is a common feminine name ending; -hiko, -hito and -maru are masculine. (For reference: Sakura: cherry blossom; Hana: flower. Hana is the name I gave Sakura's mother for this fic. Naruto is a type of swirl-patterned fish cake often served in ramen.)_

_Also: bwahahahahahaha. Mwahaha. _

**Chapter 5: ****Foxes ****(Naruto)**

"Huh. There's a lot of foxes on this island."

The pungent scent was unmistakable. Naruto wrinkled his nose -- and then dodged hurriedly as a blade-tipped staff whizzed over his head, taking off an inch of blond hair.

Sasuke frowned and glanced at Naruto's stomach, both hands closed over his own adversary's fists. The girl spat some kind of poison at his face; he dropped low to the ground and kicked up, catching her under the chin. "What kind of foxes?"

"How should I know? They all smell the same to me." Rolling to the side, Naruto crouched and plucked a tuft of orange-red fur from a bush. "Low to the ground, so... Normal kind? Normal-sized at least."

"Hey, you mind paying attention to the fight?" his opponent complained, a hand on his hip. "What are you, an amateur zoologist?"

"Oops, sorry."

"I'll make you sorry!" The boy stood back, staff ready. "Beehive storm!"

"What kind of name is -- whoa!" Naruto stepped back hurriedly as the pointy end of the spear came at him, ten, twenty times, so fast it looked like a barrage of stingers to the eye.

"Why d'you care about foxes anyway?" his adversary asked as he stabbed away.

Naruto snorted. "Eh, no reason. I know it's --" he dodged hurriedly; "--not the kind of place you find elephants -- but I woulda expected -- whoa! -- weirder stuff -- I dunno, killer wasps -- cat-sized fire-lizards? Things."

"We saw a giant meat-eating armadillo, that count?" the boy with the spear asked as he tried to skewer Naruto again, though a little more slowly.

Twisting aside, Naruto deflected the blade with his kunai and grinned at his adversary. "Nice! Normal armadillos look weird already. Did it have fangs? Horns?"

They grunted in effort as they attacked each other again. This time Naruto knew how to stop the flow. He kicked the blade down to the ground -- it nicked his shin, and a few drops of blood flew -- and stepped on it. Then, whirling on his toes, he brought his foot down on the shaft, heel first. Wood splintered.

His opponent pulled the broken shaft free, unbalancing Naruto, who wobbled just enough that the first counterattack scythed over his head by pure blind luck. Naruto flailed and rolled to dodge the follow-up.

"Naruto, I know you're having fun but could you hurry up?" Sakura complained from where she stood, by a low, twisted tree just sturdy enough to tie her own opponent to the trunk. The boy sulked for all he was worth, his cheek a bright, swollen red where she'd backhanded him. From the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Sasuke dump the KOed girl across her teammate's legs.

"Aw geeze, okay, okay!" He shaped a hand seal, eyes narrowed. "Behold! My most terrible technique!"

The boy braced himself, expression fierce and a little alarmed.

"Sexy no jutsu!"

Poof.

It was cruel, cruel, cruel, to throw a naked babe at a thirteen-year-old.

It was even more cruel on the part of the thirteen-year-old not to even have working hormones yet. Well, not enough. "D-don't joke with me! _Beehive storm_!"

He stabbed at Naruto, still woman-shaped. Naruto eeped cutely and fell on his tush.

"Got you! URAA!"

The broken spear plunged.

Naruko's long, shapely, bare leg flew up. Her delicate little foot planted itself right between her opponent's wide, shocked eyes and sent him flying head over heels.

Naruto dissipated the jutsu and jumped back on his feet. The boy was sprawled on his back, and didn't try to get up again. Feeling his shoulder where the broken tip of the spear had torn his shirt and left behind a bloody furrow, Naruto turned around to check on his teammates.

Sasuke and Sakura were staring at him like they were thinking of finishing the job. Naruto rubbed his neck and grinned. "What? My legs have more reach like that."

"... True blonde..." the boy mumbled dazedly from the ground.

His friend who was currently tied up glared at Naruto, all the contempt in the world in his pointy little face. "That's your ultimate technique?"

Naruto huffed and leaned over his dizzy opponent to tie him up and search his pockets. "Hey! I beat a Hokage with that, I'll have you know. ... Aw, no token."

"Me neither," Sakura said, as she finished searching Sasuke's adversary. The girl was still unconscious; Sakura tested her heartbeat and pupils as Naruto dragged the third guy to sit with his teammates.

In the end, nothing could be gleaned from any of them, all three of their tokens having been stolen by some other group a little while ago. Frustrating, since Team Seven had wasted about half the day on those kids, but hey, what could they do. The ropes weren't that tight; the kids would get free soon enough. Naruto sniffed the wind, reformed two Kage Bunshins to guard their flanks and watch out for trouble, Sasuke picked a direction, and they walked away from the trio, in search of a team to steal those elusive last tokens from.

"Hey, I got a name idea! What about Ramenko?"

"... No."

"Misoko?"

"_No_."

"Sobako?"

"Damn it, you ate two hours ago. You're not naming our potential daughter after food because you couldn't be bothered to buy snacks when you still could."

"I think we have to set down ground rules about baby names," Sasuke said.

Sakura blinked. "Hm? Like what?"

"What's acceptable or not, mostly." He threw Naruto a faintly mocking smirk; Naruto scowled in wary confusion. "No ramen-based names."

"Wha --"

"In favor," Sakura replied without missing a beat.

The corner of Sasuke's mouth quirked up. "Motion passed."

Naruto stared at them both in turn, cheeks puffed up in annoyance. Sasuke gave him a look he probably thought was deadpan, but was in fact still bastardly amused; Sakura was trying to smother a laugh behind her hand. "Hey! Come on, guys, that's not fair. Ramenmaru would be a totally bitchin' name!"

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "I believe we've already had this conversation."

Naruto grumbled and gave them a half-serious glare-pout. "Fine, but then I get to set rules too. No flower names, hah!"

Sakura put both hands on her hips and made a face at him. "What do you have against flower names? It's a family tradition, I'll have you know."

"Is it?" Sasuke asked, arching an eyebrow.

Sakura briefly looked sheepish. "Well, it's only been two generations. But it _could _be."

"Well yeah, but your mom is 'flower' in general and you're 'one kind of flower'; if you keep getting more specific, what's the kid gonna be called next? Stem? Pistil?"

Sakura pouted. "Kahen -- petal -- it could work. Besides there are many very pretty flower names."

"I don't know for you, but if I'd been named after some sissy flower I'd have become a hermit at age five," Naruto drawled, crossing his arms behind his head casually.

Sakura bristled. "Oh, because being named for a ramen ingredient is any better?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, though Naruto could see he was laughing at them inside. "Compromise. If it's a girl, flower-based names are acceptable; if it's a boy, they aren't. Easy."

Sakura was still frowning a bit. "Fine. But I get veto rights on everything."

"Oi! How come?"

"Because I'm pregnant and you're not. But I'm sure I could come up with some kind of medical jutsu to fix that."

Ghhk. Naruto pressed his thighs together and shuffled a few steps back. Sakura crossed her arms sulkily.

Sasuke was absolutely no help, of course. He was doing his 'my-face-is-made-of-stone-but-I-might-be-laughing-at-you-behind-it-_but-you-will-never-know'_ thing again.

"How about tree names for a boy?" Naruto said, as a peace offering.

Sakura blinked at him with some surprise, and seemed to be considering.

"...It better not be a sissy tree, is all I'm saying."

"Oh, shut up."

Sakura shoved him halfheartedly, and Naruto pretended to stumble, laughing. He bumped into Sasuke, expecting a sarcastic comment or a shove in the other direction, but Sasuke only pushed him enough to get him back properly upright. Naruto blinked and then squinted at him.

"Okay, what's got you depressed now."

"I'm not depressed." Sasuke glared a little; Naruto didn't believe it. "... I'm thinking, that's all -- wait, you wouldn't know what that's like."

"Oh hah hah. That was old when we were twelve, man. What are you brooding about?"

"I'm _not_ brooding. Drop it already."

Naruto's face scrunched up in fake horrified sadness and he threw an arm around Sasuke's neck. "Don't tell me you really had your heart set on naming our unborn son Marigold."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but some of the inward-looking vagueness in his eyes faded, reassuring Naruto. He never liked it when Sasuke thought too much about depressing things. Then he'd get pissy because he couldn't find anything else to do about his worries and push his lovers away and sulk like a bitch.

Sakura slowed down and moved to Sasuke's other side, peering at him. Sasuke looked away, as if he were considering ignoring her and running away from all their well-meaning worrywartiness. Naruto secured his hold, just in case.

Sakura's voice was soft, a little sad. "Would you want to name him or her after... someone?"

Sasuke's put-upon expression melted away, and he met Sakura's eyes with a solemn look of his own.

"... Maybe your parents?" she said.

Naruto blinked when he finally understood. "Huh? People do that? That's a bit weird, isn't it?"

Sasuke tensed under his arm and leaned away from him slightly. Naruto winced, and didn't let go. If Sasuke got away now he'd never stop sulking.

"Lots of people are named for someone -- or something -- meaningful," Sakura intervened, scowling at him for being insensitive. "Naming a child isn't just about what sounds pretty."

Naruto grimaced at her a little. He hadn't meant it like that. "Maybe it should be," he said back, and then realized it sounded kind of like he was looking for a fight. He softened his tone, his eyes never looking away from Sasuke's angry ones. "No -- listen, I just mean, it's not a bad idea in general, but... Wouldn't the kid wonder if they're supposed to be a replacement?"

From the flinch and the way Sasuke's fists clenched, Naruto could see that Sasuke didn't like hearing that much -- but also that he could see his point, however reluctantly. Naruto nudged him a bit, trying to find the words to make it better.

He didn't, so he just nudged Sasuke again.

"... You're right," Sasuke admitted, choking a little on the words. He looked away then, not quite at Sakura either. "It would be too much baggage to saddle the child with."

Naruto smiled then. "Yeah. A brand-new person. No baggage allowed."

Sakura smiled a little wetly and slipped her arm around Sasuke's waist, hugging him. Sasuke sighed. "You two are so clingy."

Naruto noticed Sasuke wrapped an arm around Sakura's waist right back nonetheless, and let Naruto lean on him, allowing himself a few seconds of sappiness before he shrugged them both into giving him back his personal space. Naruto obliged, allowing his arm to slip away from Sasuke's shoulders, but really just because it would be stupid to be too entangled to fight back if they were attacked now.

"Hey, we can always badger our children into choosing who our grandchildren get to be named after."

"... Naruto, don't talk about grandchildren now."

If it had been anyone else, Naruto would have said they sounded a little faint, but of _course_ Sasuke did not. Yeah right. Now Sasuke didn't look vaguely depressed anymore, he looked overwhelmed; but Naruto thought worrying about the future was still better than brooding about the past.

"Traditional clan names are probably okay, though, right? As long as they sound nice. We don't want the kid to be laughed out of the schoolyard."

Sakura grimaced at him behind Sasuke's head and mouthed silently _'Leave it alone already.'_ Naruto blinked, and realized Sasuke had gone straight through overwhelmed into seasick.

It was just too tempting to pass up.

"Hey, bastard?"

"What?"

Naruto allowed himself a grin of amusement about the fact that 'bastard' was now so much of Sasuke's official nickname that he didn't even blink twice anymore. Granted, it would also depend a lot on the tone of Naruto's voice when he said it. "You get to be the get-off-my-lawn grandpa. I'll be better at the candy-giving one."

Sasuke's reaction was a mix of annoyance -- expected -- and cringing frustration -- definitely unexpected. "_Don't_ --" He breathed out, and glared, but it didn't make his first word sound any less pleading. "You're a real pain in the ass."

...Now he felt a little bad, for teasing Sasuke when he was feeling vulnerable. He should probably have encouraged Sasuke to open up more by being attentive and supportive and stuff, but he didn't have a clue how to do that without looking stupid or making Sasuke clam up. At least, if he teased Sasuke, having him clam up as a result would be deliberate.

"Don't what?" Sakura asked softly.

Sasuke glanced at her, and then glared at his shoes. "... Nothing. Look, there's animal tracks, let's find some food."

He went up ahead, bouncing over a rock and quickly out of sight; Naruto slumped guiltily. Sakura gave him a little glare but it soon melted away; she stepped up to him and bumped him with her shoulder.

"I don't think he's angry, just..." She paused to find the right word. "Unnerved."

"But having a family is great!"

Sakura nodded. "Yes. He thinks so too, you know that. I think that's the problem. Maybe he's just afraid to jinx it."

Naruto wrapped an arm around Sakura's back and hugged her to his side briefly, sighing in her hair. It made sense, now that he thought of it. It was more scary to have the potential of something good than to have nothing at all. Then you got to be scared of everything that could make it not happen. When you had nothing and expected nothing, there was nothing to lose, not even hope.

"...Our boyfriend is a freak."

Sakura gave him a crooked smirk and prodded him in the chest with a hard finger. "Like you can talk, ramen-boy."

"Hey, my liking of ramen is perfectly normal and healthy. Ramen is great, AND it's nutritious and filling."

Sakura gave him a dubiously cocked eyebrow. "I don't think you want to argue nutritional values with me. You'll lose." She flipped her hair and started jogging after Sasuke.

"It's not my fault they don't make fruit ramen!"

Since they were going hunting and not passively waiting for someone to attack them, Naruto dissipated the bunshins. They'd seen nothing but rocks and thorny bushes and more rocks. He could have spared himself the expense of chakra -- but then again they wouldn't have had that conversation.

The area smelled like rabbits and that weird miniature island deer, a few small predators, and a lot of lizards, so when they followed Sasuke down a hollow and found a little stream at the bottom, half-hidden by tall ferns, he wasn't too surprised. Sakura tested the water and then she and Sasuke refilled the flasks. Naruto watched the area. The hollow was greener than the rest of the island so far, the plants higher; a few of the trees even managed to reach about Jiraiya's height. Which was kind of ridiculously stunted for a tree, but on that island it was still damn high.

_Good hunt__ing here_, he thought. Well... Rabbits, mostly. But much better than elsewhere.

"It's getting late," Sakura commented. "Should we camp here?"

Sasuke grimaced. "We can, but tomorrow we'll have to go straight to the tower."

By this point the surrounding area would be full of enemies lying in wait... "It's not as if we've had any luck finding our last two tokens out here," Naruto grumbled. "I say we just run at them and smash right through."

Sakura huffed. "You would."

"We'll have to go through them to get to the watchtower regardless," Sasuke said. "Might as well get some other use out of them."

"And if we don't fall into a trap?"

"Then we make one. Or look for a Jounin to steal from."

Judging by Sasuke's decisive tone, he'd managed to find his footing again. That or repress like crazy. Business as usual. Naruto was almost sad.

Naruto took in the place and considered. The slopes weren't steep enough to keep game boxed in if he tried to flush them at his teammates, so...

"What are you grinning about?" Sakura asked, looking faintly worried.

Naruto realized he was doing a happy shark impression and immediately looked sheepish. "Haha, nothing, I just realized I'm gonna have to crawl around in the bushes to hunt. It's kind of fun. You know, stalk your prey and chase and..."

Sakura's worry didn't seem to be getting much better. Naruto sighed, shoulders slumping.

"Or I could just put up some snares."

"I'll come with you," she said. "Your traps are horrible."

Well, it was funnier to catch them with his own teeth. ... Hands. With his hands. Naruto shivered. _'Hey Kyuubi, you here?'_

"--Naruto?"

"Uh -- sorry, distracted. Alright, if you insist..."

"And you, Sasuke-kun?"

He shrugged. "I'll set the camp. Just go."

"We'll climb around the outside and come back toward you, maybe something will run your way," Sakura said. Sasuke just waved them off and crouched to start digging a fire pit.

They went in silence, uphill and around, Naruto with his eyes half-closed and the wings of his nose fluttering as he caught the fresh scent of prey. Rabbits, yes, lots of them. Smaller rodents, too, but those didn't feed much unless you caught a lot, and that was a waste of time and looked rather pitiful to boot.

The bushes and plants weren't very tall, but they were densely entangled. Naruto saw a couple of what he suspected to be deer paths, but the rest seemed at first sight to be a solid block of bramble-bound greenery. Grinning, he fell into a crouch and looked for a crack to crawl in.

He was bigger than quite a few predators around the island, but there were the huge lizards to take into account, and the deer made openings too. He forgot Sakura at first, delighted by the grass and leaves surrounding him, hiding him from view. It was tempting to just find a burrow and lie in wait for the next rabbit. But he was too impatient to wait long, and there were too many scents to explore. And he had to bring food back to his mates anyway.

"...Naruto?"

Naruto jumped a little, and grinned at Sakura over his shoulder for reassurance. It didn't seem to work very much; he saw her swallow and wince.

"Don't go all foxlike on me... Please?"

It was the please that did him in. Naruto sighed, anticipation simmering down. "Sorry. Look, there's a burrow here."

She looked down at her hands, at the string coiled there, not making a move to set up a snare. "No, I'm sorry, I mean -- it's totally harmless, right? I know that. But it's just that it feels a little weird when you ... stop talking."

Naruto quirked up the corner of his mouth in a rueful half-smile and plucked a leaf out of her hair gently. Hunting meant he should stay quiet -- and strangely enough, when he was tracking something it really wasn't hard. But they weren't really hunting, they were just setting traps. Granted, if something was flushed out under his nose he'd go for it, but... Yeah. "You really sure you want me to just babble whatever goes through my head?"

Sakura threw him an exaggeratedly wary look, and then sighed, sobering up. "... Alright, do whatever you want."

But he was pretty sure that doing that would weird her out again. It should have weirded him out too, how at home he felt in the thicket, but it was hard to fret when there were so many fascinating scents just asking to be untangled and paths needing explored. So he watched her slim fingers as they flew through a series of complicated knots, balancing a rock here, bending a branch just barely off the edge of snapping there, and tried not to wonder too hard whether he would catch something if he threw himself on his stomach and stuffed his arm as deep down the burrow as it could go.

"Do you want to try? It's not hard, you just hold the string like this and... Naruto?"

Naruto blinked and looked up at Sakura's face. "Ah, it's okay. I don't have your tiny fingers."

"My fingers are not tiny. And yours aren't that big anyway. And -- Naruto..."

"Hm?"

She was chewing on her lip again. "... I'm sorry."

Naruto ruffled the hair at the back of his head and grinned. "About what? It's okay, I mean, you're right it's freaky--"

Her stricken expression stopped him cold, left him confused.

"Did... Did Sasuke-kun tell--"

-- Oh. "No, no, he didn't tell me, he -- I just remembered later. I mean usually I'm pretty gone when I'm sleepwalking, but that time I wasn't as much, and it was kind of a weird state, kinda floaty, you know, but -- yeah, so. I remembered on my own."

She seemed at a loss for words, mortified and guilty, and he cursed himself for being so stupid as to tell her he'd overheard. She'd been confiding in Sasuke, and -- well, he was the one they'd been talking about in the first place, but there was a reason Sakura didn't want to tell Naruto himself.

"Sakura-chan..." He leaned closer, raised a hand to caress her hair softly, unsure that this was the right kind of approach. "It's alright. I'm not angry. I mean -- I get so used to the whole Kyuubi mess that sometimes I don't even know what I'd be like if he wasn't there. But --"

She shook her head no, teeth worrying at her lower lip. "If you don't have a problem with it, then why should I? It's so -- selfish -- narrow-minded..."

"What?" he blurted out, confused. Where on Earth did that come from?

"He's a part of you now, right? I should just accept that. Sasuke-kun doesn't even blink, and yet I..."

"I thought we decided Sasuke is a total freak," Naruto countered, trying to inject some humor in his voice. "Don't beat yourself up because you don't react like him, okay? I mean, he's from a clan of weirdoes who can grow more pupils, what does he care if mine get kinda cat-shaped, right?"

Sakura seemed even more miserable. "... But he accepts that part of you."

And she didn't; she didn't say it, but it was on the tip of her tongue and they both knew it. Naruto's shoulders sagged, and he swallowed a bitter aftertaste in his mouth. Yeah. There was that.

"I still don't think it's fair to compare the two of you like that. I mean, he's -- he's Sasuke, you know? And you're you. You aren't the same people, so of course you're not gonna react the same way. I'm not angry at you, I promise, so--"

Sakura placed a hand on his mouth to cover his strained smile. She looked up at him then, but to him it still seemed like it wouldn't take a lot more to make her cry. "Maybe, but you're hurt. I didn't want to hurt you."

He kissed her palm, his hand covering hers, and gently guided it off his face. "You know, Sakura-chan, you fret _way_ too much. Why does it freak you out so much anyway? I mean okay, it looks weird, but why does it get to you so much? Are you, uh, worried Kyuubi's gonna take over or something?"

She frowned, shook her head no slowly. "...I... Maybe a little. Not very."

"Hm. So... Are you scared for the baby, what it means for him or her?"

Seeing Sakura's startled face, he'd just managed to give her another worry.

"No, that's not it. It's -- it's about you. It's not about the baby or me." Her fingers clenched around his own and Naruto watched the realization bloom on her face. "... I'm afraid it will get worse and you'll stay stuck like that."

"Sakura-chan, I'm not gonna--"

"And you won't notice," she interrupted him; "but --little by little -- you'll be gone. Naruto'll be gone."

She shuddered; the rest of her words came out as a rush.

"And there will be that fox _thing_ in Naruto's body, who just sniffs things and hunts and goes into heat, and oh, it will still hang around and cuddle up at night, but -- it will be like living with someone who has brain damage. It's still the same face, but it's empty behind their eyes because some part of them is _lost_!" She looked up at him, eyes huge and scared. "And you-Naruto can never chat or plan out a mission or prank Kakashi-sensei again -- or tell me you l-- You l--"

"I love you," he blurted out. He didn't even think; he pulled Sakura on his lap, crushed her against his chest, hugging hard and tight, and her hands shook a little when she clenched them in his shirt.

"I love you, love you, love you. And it's never gonna happen because I don't want it to. Man, I need my brain to raise our kid or she'll go around sniffing her buddies' diapers in preschool. And then when she grows up she'll hate our guts because the boy of her dreams calls her the butt-sniffer and it will be _horrible_, worse than war or cholera."

Sakura choked, or maybe that was a laugh. She hugged him a little harder, pressing her cheek against his neck, head bowed. "... I'm sorry, I know I'm being stupid..."

"You're not stupid at all," Naruto said softly, a hand cupping the back of her head. "It was really scary when I started waking up in weird places and having strange dreams. I -- kinda thought about that kind of stuff, too. Not being myself anymore." He smiled a little; his pride hurt from admitting to thinking so much he'd scared himself. "But it's been years and I haven't gotten that much more brain-dead or anything... Right?"

Sakura sighed and nodded, straightening up, and he missed her warmth against his upper body a little bit. She didn't move off his lap, though, allowing him to keep his arms around her.

"But it keeps happening and no one really knows why. I asked."

"So find that out," he suggested, the solution so evident he didn't understand why neither of them had thought of it before. "I mean, Jiraiya is all about the seal does this and the seal doesn't do that, but hey, it's not _his _seal. And he knows more about the chakra side and the possession side than what it's doing to my brain. Besides he's a writer, not a shrink, that's not the same way to know people. Maybe there's some kind of influence he missed that would explain the foxiness. Maybe you'd feel better knowing all the gritty details. Then you wouldn't have to worry about what it _could _do."

Sakura closed her eyes as she considered it; Naruto watched her. She seemed less tense already, provided with an outlet for her worries. "... It would be a lot of work."

"Well, yeah." Naruto wasn't sure she minded, though. He knew Sakura liked keeping busy and her brain stimulated.

"And I can't get started before we're done with the Chuunin tests anyway." She frowned then, brisk and professional once again. Naruto grinned.

"Hey, I'm not gonna blow up in one lousy little month. The sleepwalking's been tapering off for a while now. And it started when I was, what, thirteen? Fourteen? You've got lots of time." He gave her a suspicious look. "It's not like you have to throw yourself at it, right? Just take it slow. The way it's going, we've got _years_."

"You _think _we've got years," she rectified, but it was stern more than worried.

Also, she was still on his lap. So he kissed her nose. Sakura's cheeks reddened slightly and she pouted a little, which only prompted him to kiss her on the lips. Seeing her mollified, he leaned in for another, slower kiss...

For a second, she met him, lips parting under his own; and then she tensed up and looked around quickly. "Oh crap! I can't _believe_ myself. What if someone came and attacked us?"

Naruto grimaced at the reminder. Damn it! "Aw, we're in the middle of a thicket, we'd have heard them..."

"And maybe not!" She squirmed out of his lap. "Damn it, how stupid--"

Naruto wanted to feel guilty, but he couldn't get past his feeling that he would have known. His senses were still running high, tracking the faint sounds and smells all around; the idea that someone might have gotten the drop on him seemed ludicrous. But for all he knew that deep-rooted sense of self-confidence was totally wrong.

"And it's getting late and we still haven't caught anything, and the traps might take _hours_ or _days _to bring anything in..."

Naruto perked up. "Or we could rush through and herd something Sasuke's way." A chance to give chase to something! His skin tingled. Ohh, yes. Yes yes yes. ...Oh. Right. "...I might go a little foxy again. Is that okay?"

Sakura hesitated. Naruto waited, stomach clenching.

"... Yes. Alright. Yes." She managed a brave smile, squaring her shoulders. "Okay. Let's hunt."

* * *

They burst out of the bushes at a dead run, chest angled low, on the edge of balance. The small tusked deer veered hard to the left when it ended up out of cover, but Sakura veered with it and a kunai flashed out of her hand. The deer tumbled, back leg spraying blood on the grass; Naruto was on it the next second. They rolled down the riverbank, once, twice -- then his claws found purchase in its jaws and he twisted until its neck broke.

He sat straddling his kill, grinning toothily, as Sakura let her momentum take her down the slope to join him.

When Naruto looked up through the reeds, Sasuke was watching them, knee-deep in the stream, his hand still resting on the shuriken holster strapped to his thigh. Naruto snorted; he kept grinning, with fangs and all. "Poor widdle Sasuke-chan, did we startle you?"

Sasuke snorted and turned his back on them. "Idiots. Both of you."

Naruto expected Sakura to sober up and remember she'd been uneasy, still was a little; but instead she grinned, cheeks still flushed from their wild run. He kind of wanted to kiss her again, and give her windblown hair another reason to look that mussed.

"Sorry, Sasuke-kun." She nudged Naruto, who moved off the deer willingly enough, and crouched to start butchering the animal. "You should have come, it was fun!" she commented with determined good cheer. "We should run together more often."

Sasuke grunted in apparent disinterest, as he cupped water in his hands and poured it down his back. That was when Naruto really noticed he was shirtless, and his pants were so soaked through they looked painted on.

"Whatcha doin?"

"Washing," Sasuke replied caustically, as he picked up a handful of sand. "You should try it sometime."

He still had his back turned. That was asking for it, really. Grinning, Naruto got rid of his jacket and crawled through the grass and the reeds, body low to the ground.

Sasuke kept looking unaware. From the corner of his eye Naruto saw Sakura open her mouth as if to berate him; he flashed her a pleading look, and she hesitated.

_'Come on, fun,'_ he let her read on his lips.

Sakura sighed, and a smile grew on her face, reluctant at first and then amused. "... Say, Sasuke-kun, do you remember that Rock genin?"

... And now she was distracting Sasuke for him! Score. Hah, he'd always known Sakura secretly enjoyed it when he pranked the hell out of people. But she'd never cooperated when it was against Sasuke before. Naruto wiggled in happiness and sank in the water with barely a ripple.

"Which one?" Sasuke replied absently as he washed his shoulders. Wet hair clung to the back of his neck.

"Not the one with the sword, the one who did the water jutsu."

Naruto allowed the current to angle his body, and slowly pushed upstream with his hands and feet.

"Yeah? What about it?"

"Oh..."

Sakura paused, and Naruto glanced at her, worried that she was running out of inspiration. But instead she was concentrating on skinning the deer; she had blood up to her elbows but it didn't seem to bother her much. Naruto purred. He liked a woman who was so matter of fact about blood on her paws. _Hands_. Blah.

"I was just wondering if you saw the seals he was using?" she asked casually, glancing at Naruto in a very 'hurry up already' way. "Because if you still remember them, I wouldn't mind trying it out."

Sasuke was still washing. Naruto crept closer. "Hm. Seems like a taxing jutsu. I'll teach you the hand seals, but you might want to wait until after the test to practice. Naruto, I'll _kick you in the face_."

--Aw shit! The surprise lost, his only advantage left was speed; Naruto lurched out of the water, going for a tackle. Sasuke would have, no doubt, whirled out of the way flawlessly, but the footing was treacherous, with all those loose mossy rocks. Naruto caught him in mid-turn. They landed with a loud splash, Sasuke on his hip and elbow, Naruto over him, limbs tangled together as they flailed to come out on top; the noise didn't cover Sakura's giggles.

Naruto got water up his nose and sneezed; hearing Sasuke cough, he decided to be generous and not dunk him again. The Uchiha glared somberly at him; the front of his hair was glued down over his face in a gelled curtain, and the back a forest of spikes that pointed in about every direction known to man and then some. Naruto snickered.

"You two are so childish," Sakura commented primly from the riverbank where she washed her hands.

Her tone must have been too serious, or otherwise transparent, because then she was the one Sasuke was throwing sulky glares at. "Just wait a minute and you'll see how childish I really am."

Sakura blinked, startled; Naruto didn't remember Sasuke play-threatening her before either, and he rather enjoyed her conflicting looks of alarm and amusement. But right now he was the one playing with Sasuke, so when the black-haired teen moved to get up, Naruto threw his arms around his neck from behind and pulled him back down.

"I've got him! Run, Sakura-chan!" he called as Sasuke fell back across his lap with another loud splash.

Sasuke squirmed, and his legs thrashed for purchase, but once again the moss denied him. Naruto laughed in his neck, feeling wet black hair against his face.

Sakura was very much not running, Naruto noticed, managing to spare a glance between two attempts to pin down Sasuke's arms. Frozen on her knees in the process of rising, she stared at the two of them with her lips parted. She still had deer blood up her arms like wet red sleeves, and a couple of flecks on her cheek. Naruto groaned and bit Sasuke's neck.

"--_Naruto_."

Naruto bit him again, over the dead mark of the curse seal. Sasuke's breath hitched, and his struggles slowed down, more of a token protest than a serious attempt to counterattack. Naruto growled softly, worrying the skin with his fangs. As pretty as it was, sometimes he hated that mark. The only marks Sasuke should carry were Naruto's.

His hands slid over Sasuke's wet skin, palms flat over his chest, fingers stretched, claws barely brushing; on the bank, Sakura started biting her lower lip, transfixed. She looked -- a little jealous, perhaps, but aroused. Naruto kissed the reddened skin around the dark tattoo, nosed through damp locks of hair. "She likes watching," he murmured.

Sasuke tensed in his arms and let out a soft groan. "Now is not the time."

"For what?" Naruto's hands ran over Sasuke's chest, his shoulders, palming his nipples almost by accident. "I'm just helping wash you."

Sasuke growled -- groaned? hard to tell -- and pulled away from him. "Not _now_, I said. I'm not having sex with anyone during the test and that's final." He frowned at Naruto over his shoulder. "I'm serious."

He looked like it, too. Naruto gave a short sigh and glanced over at Sakura. Blushing, she hurriedly climbed to her feet, rubbing her hands dry on her skirt and not noticing she left blood-pink tracks behind.

"Ah -- yes, he's right, and we don't even have perimeter alarms set anyway --"

"I set them up," Sasuke commented laconically as he stepped away. "But it's still not a reason."

... Augh! Unfair. And now Sakura was busying herself with the deer and the fire pit, taking good care not to look their way. Naruto huffed, glaring at his back from his seat in the stream. Sasuke picked up a handful of sand and started scrubbing like he couldn't care less. Damn him, no matter that he was right. _Especially _since he was right!

Naruto sighed and got up, wobbling a little on the wet rocks. His pants were drenched, sticking to his skin. What a downer.

"Hey... How about I wash your back and you wash mine?" Sasuke looked suspicious, but Naruto sighed. "No, I won't feel you up, promise." He just wanted to touch skin right now; it was too brutal a crash otherwise, from the tingling high of anticipation to this distance.

"... Fine. But if your hands wander..." Sasuke didn't complete his sentence; it was clear enough.

Naruto gave him a wounded, irritated look. "Told you I wouldn't. Where's the sand?" He moved closer to Sasuke, looking between the rocks for the patch of sand he was using.

His skin still prickled with the hunt, and the mock-fight, and the desire. He raised his hands, rested them on Sasuke's back, feeling muscles under the skin, and hairline-fine scars and a couple of tiny pinpricks. Sasuke healed well. Naruto wanted to scar him. He just closed his eyes briefly, breathed in and out, and started rubbing, fingers digging into tense muscles, palms rubbing sand to scour the skin.

"Why'd you keep your pants?" he asked; he didn't really care apart from the fact that it blocked his view, but if he didn't find something to talk about he might end up doing something stupid and have to deal with Sasuke's contempt.

It didn't matter how much he wanted sex, this was just no time and place, the end. He _knew_ that, he really did, but his body was still buzzing.

"... Like I wanted to be naked and weaponless if someone attacked the camp."

"Could have strapped the kunai sheath on anyway," Naruto suggested, and then groaned a little at the thought of a band of dark cloth wrapped around a bare thigh. Damn it.

"I don't fight naked."

"Heh, yeah, freeballin' ain't really..." Argh, argh, argh. What was wrong with him, was Kyuubi making him all horny again? He'd thought that would stop once he started getting booty regularly.

Naruto looked away from the bared nape and the wet dark strands, casting around for a safer topic. Sakura was done spitting the deer; she stood in the tall grass, hands knotted together over her chest, watching them with a kind of naked hunger in her eyes that was less sexual desire than need to belong, though it probably was both.

He was opening his mouth to suggest she help, but then a red-orange flash in the corner of his eye made him twitch around -- and there it was, in the middle of their encampment, a lanky old beast with Naruto's own prey in its jaw -- a thigh-high fox, the miniature deer's hooves trailing on the ground -- and three tails, a dirty _three-tails _was stealing Naruto's prey!

_He_'d hunted that deer for _his_ mates! It was their _dinner_! Outraged, Naruto snarled and threw himself out of the stream. The fox jumped for the bushes, eyes wide and ears flattened back in obvious panic. Yeah, let it panic! Hot on its tracks, he yelled an outraged challenge, words melding together and losing all meaning. A three-tails! Barely three! How could it even _dare _--

None of them had noticed where the stream ran to, a couple hundred meters down. The hollow twisted sharply to the left, cutting all view, and deepened into a startlingly green canyon. Under the dense tangle of plants, a couple of crumbled, caved-in manmade structures that must have been fortified hideouts some fifty years ago kept watch on the canyon.

When he ran between them in hot pursuit of the fox, Naruto hadn't really been expecting a wolf his height at the shoulder to burst out of the crumbled building and leap at him from behind.

The fangs missed him, but the beast's shoulder checked him, sending him rolling down the sharp slope. He clawed at the earth to slow his momentum; a rock caught him in the hip and he gritted his teeth.

Then something whistled through the air and he backflipped just in time to dodge a descending sharp length. A claw?

The wolf wore an oversized village headband as a collar.

"Ambush!" he screamed, to warn his teammates, but they'd already burst over the edge of the canyon after him; he caught a glimpse of movement, many furred bodies rushing at the two of them, and then he couldn't worry about them anymore. The air whistled again, and what was -- sword! Black, painted sword, leaving a burning trail across his chest.

Naruto snarled and clawed low, but he could only give himself enough space to retreat downhill, and then he was attacked again.

Girl, long black hair, dressed in dark and tan, and moving fast -- maybe even as fast as Sasuke. She blurred from sight, but he couldn't worry much because then the wolf jumped him again, maw gaping wide enough to swallow him in one bite. He had to get himself out of there, but there was no time to even shape one seal. He dodged the sword, rolled under the wolf's chest to put its mass between them, but it instantly whirled around as its mistress vaulted over its back, plunged sword first at Naruto, leaving him no way out.

A flurry of kunai tore through the air. The girl knocked a couple out of the air, but her wolf yelped in pain, jumping aside; Naruto dived through the opening and retreated hurriedly.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled.

He looked for her where the kunai had come from; she'd moved on already, but her pink hair caught his eye not too far from there as she took cover behind a rock. The trees were pitiful; trunks no wider than his thigh and all twisted and stunted, shallow roots changing the ground into a series of snares and ankle-breaking hollows. Climbing on the trees themselves would get them nowhere; they were too small to put anyone out of reach of anything. The slope was awkward to boot, full of slippery dead leaves.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

He sent his clones all over the place, slipping unnoticed amongst them. Where were the other enemies? He couldn't see Sasuke. A clone burst behind him, then two, torn to shreds by wolf fangs.

There -- dark-skinned boy, Iruka-in-the-sun-all-summer shade contrasting sharply with his pale teal-green hair. He was staring in Sakura's general direction, hands clasped in a seal. Naruto pounced.

The world went weird in mid-leap, full of psychedelic colors, and he was losing his balance and his sense of directions, and shit, shit -- "Kai!" The forest snapped back into place, only to start crawling with a rush of mice. Amongst the mice ran cats and dogs and -- there! The three-tailed fox. Ignoring the carpet of squirming mice, he threw a kunai its way. The fox dodged behind a rock crawling with huge black rats. The mice were climbing Naruto's pant legs inside and out, and then something tackled him to the ground.

"_Kai_!" yelled Sakura, sitting on top of him.

The mice were gone; he wasn't surprised. They hadn't smelled like anything anyway. He was two steps away from a nasty drop. At the other side of the canyon, the three-tails watched them. Naruto snarled, fangs bared. He was going to teach that mangy rat...!

"-- Where's Sasuke?" he remembered to ask, blinking to clear his sight. A few motes of light still danced in the corner of his vision.

Sakura moved off him, and they rolled to crouch back to back. "With the last one. Big guy, quarterstaff. You?"

A few of his clones rushed past, storming the rock behind which the green-haired guy was hiding. Wolf-girl was nowhere in sight. "Girl with a katana. Big wolf. Hella fast. This guy does genjutsu then?"

"He summons foxes too," Sakura commented somberly. "Seeing the wolf... Maybe they all summon."

"Shit, shit, they do," Naruto said in a rush. "He's that guy with the cat Kyuubi wanted to eat!"

Sakura muttered something unhappy between her clenched teeth and cracked her knuckles. "The girl is fast, Sasuke would do better. The big guy with the staff, brute force, for you. ...I'll manage the genjutsu type. Just find Sasuke and trade."

"I'm not leaving you," he protested. "Don't count on it."

But then there was a masculine voice, and muffled words calling out a technique, and it tugged inside him. He fell to a knee in the grass; for a second the sun seemed to wink out.

"Naruto?!" Sakura attempted to snap the genjutsu, but nothing really happened.

Naruto shook his head and climbed back on his feet. "S'okay, I'm fine -- shit!" Something was making short work of his remaining clones, two, three, seven -- and all gone. "They're coming. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Some of the clones surrounded Sakura so she could counter the genjutsu without being attacked; Naruto and the rest rushed up the slope.

Foxes ran down to meet them. Two three-tails, one much younger than the first thief, one dark-furred five-tails even, standing at the green-haired boy's side with blue foxfire dancing around its head, and a dozen normal foxes, knee-high little missiles, fast as cats and full of pointed teeth. They attached themselves to his clones' wrists, their legs, weighing them down; then the girl with the sword moved in, slashing through the clones with grim efficiency. Naruto moved to meet her, but she chose the other way, mowing down the crowd to get to Sakura.

Angry now, Naruto let loose a burst of chakra that sizzled fur, made most of the one-tail yelp and cower. Suddenly he had space to move -- but the wolf moved too, hackles raised, the white of its eyes showing in fear.

Now it was afraid for its mistress, and scared dogs were the most dangerous ones. Naruto snarled at it, trying to make it back off, but it refused to step away from the path to its mistress. And Sakura --

Heart in his throat, Naruto watched her tumble off the edge and disappear in the canyon.

He took a step forward; the wolf tried to eat his head. He punched it in the muzzle, sending its head snapping back, backhanded it again and raced past as it swayed dizzily. The black-haired girl had stopped at the edge and was peering down, checking for Sakura's body, and he was going to _kill _her.

Then the ground shook, and the ledge broke off the slope and slipped down, bringing the swordswoman with it. Naruto hoped she'd get crushed to death, though he doubted that would happen. He found the closest stable rock and leaned over -- "Sakura-chan!?"

He found his teammate dangling by a rappelling wire from the side of the cliff, still swinging from the impact, hair and skin gray with dust. "I'm fine!" she called out between two coughs. "Careful about green guy!"

Naruto cast a wary look at the small trees and bushes, but he could see nothing. The smaller foxes had fled; the bigger ones were probably in hiding. The wolf growled at him but wouldn't move closer, still swaying dizzily on its huge paws. That was good, because at the moment Naruto wanted very much to bite its throat out, and he didn't care that his jaw was way too small to manage to get through its thick fur. The wolf seemed to believe he could. At the moment, so did Naruto.

Keeping an eye on the area, he found the end of the wire and pulled Sakura up. When he helped her over the edge, he saw her hand bleed in fat drops on the ground. She must have injured herself when she punched the cliff; her fingers were stiff and already swelling. "Sakura-chan?"

"She'll come back. I saw her jump to the other side. The canyon's not that wide."

Naruto growled in frustration. The summons he could deal with, but the genjutsu he couldn't; and Sakura could deal with the genjutsu, but the summons or the swordswoman would kill her. For that matter... Hn. The slices on his chest and shoulders were already closing, but they weren't exactly shallow, and they stung. "I'll get rid of her sword, then I can beat her." He wasn't sure how, but that was the only way. He hadn't seen another sword on her; kunai were easier to deal with, he would have more reach than she did.

Someone crested the top of the hill then, and for a moment Naruto's stomach constricted painfully; the newcomer was huge, seven feet tall and powerfully built, and wielded a thick metal-tipped staff. The worst thing was still that he wasn't Sasuke. But a second later, Sasuke followed, and Naruto relaxed a little. Bastard was doing fine, pressing the big guy back step by step.

The green-haired guy swore, racing to his friend's aid. Naruto took off after him, but he was downhill. He tried to throw a kunai to slow him down, but the five-tailed fox dogging his heels stared down at Naruto with strange silver eyes -- and then white fire raced through the woods like arrows, and then Naruto was burning.

It hurt, and yet it didn't. Fox illusion, the kind he could die from, if only he believed it enough. How _dare _they -- such a blatant insult. He called a clone to him, curled chakra into their hands. Wind, he thought, and changed it like Kakashi-sensei had started teaching him, except perhaps too much, and too fast, and not quite stable enough.

The Rasengan exploded up the slope, uprooting and shredding trees, making dust, cut-up grass and leaves fly.

His arm was covered in a multitude of little razor-cuts curled around the limb, but they healed over before he could fully feel them, skin sizzling with orange chakra. The five-tails was slumped up on the ground in a puddle of blood. Naruto raced past its still body without checking how alive it still was. Its master mattered more. Naruto wasn't going to let him get to Sasuke.

At the top of the hill, the big guy had thrown a powder at Sasuke's face, but Sasuke breathed a gust of fire on it and kept advancing, faster now. The teal-haired guy yelled, "Kuchiyose!", voice almost panicked. (Something called Naruto, tugged at him again, but it wasn't Sakura or Sasuke's voice so he didn't listen.) Foxes jumped at Sasuke, trying to trip him up. How many of those could he call?!

Naruto lashed out -- no jutsu, nothing but raw chakra. The top of the slope exploded under the enemies and Sasuke's feet, making them stumble and skid down in a shower of loose earth. And there, close enough now. Their bastard looked none the worse for wear, as he measured Naruto up and then glanced behind him.

"Sakura?"

"I'm fine," she replied grimly, a couple of steps behind Naruto. He hadn't even been aware she was on his heels.

Naruto grinned, watching the two outnumbered enemies, caught between the three of them. Now, _now _they were going to win.

The tall one looked faintly worried; the teal-haired one mostly looked coldly angry.

"Genjutsu won't work on mine," the tall one informed his companion quietly. They were so close, though, it was hard not to hear. Naruto snorted. Sometimes Sasuke's built-in abilities got on his nerves, but in cases like these he didn't find the Sharingan's omnipotence too bad. "Which one?"

The teal-haired one narrowed his eyes and stared straight into Naruto's. "Blond one. _Zenko, NOW_!"

She burst from the ground in a geyser of leaves, sword slashing at Sasuke's back. He saw her movement of course, whirled around to block her sword with a kunai. He'd manage, at least for a while. Naruto pulled out one of his own kunai and rushed the two male enemies.

The big guy had proven to be slow, and it was the fox guy Naruto was angry at. He dodged a swing of the quarterstaff, still tracking the green-haired guy, who shaped the same summoning seals again. Goddamnit he'd _eat _the next fox who dared to pop up.

And then there was a big hand touching his bare shoulder, and things ground to a halt.

"_Sleep_," the tall teenager said softly.

The world whirled around Naruto, around and around, twirled and danced and then jarred to a sudden stop. Oh. So dizzy. He'd lost the kunai somewhere and barely noticed. That was wrong, he knew, but his fingers seemed so far away.

The sky was so immense, purple and pink and beautiful, colors blurring together into dusk, and his eyelids weighed tons.

(The call came again, and again, and again.)

_/I__f you insist.../_ Kyuubi purred; and the last thing Naruto felt before the creeping darkness swallowed him was his own lips stretching into a wide, predatory smile.


	18. TW3 chpt6: Sakura: Rampage

_-In Japanese legends, there is no difference between a run of the mill wild fox and a magical multi-tailed fox; a multi-tailed fox is just older and more powerful. Just like Naruto can summon tadpoles, small toads, huge toads or TEXAS SIZED TOADS depending on how much chakra he uses and which individual he's aiming for, green-haired enemy guy can summon different levels of fox, as long as he has enough chakra for it.  
__-I did take a liberty with the summoning process here, but it's more of a "it's not likely but canon never said it couldn't" than "canon did say it couldn't, but I want it to." It was that or no Kyuubiness at all, which is just too sad to contemplate. T.T  
__-I'd like to point out that I had the "Kyuubi as a summon" idea a long time before Kishimoto anti-jossed me. Kishi, you idea thief. XD_

_Oh god I__ hate writing fight scenes. Haate. ::whinewhine:: plz loev me. _

_Thanks to Joisbishmyoga for the beta._

* * *

**Chapter 6 : ****Rampage  
****(Sakura)**

"If that makes the Council feel better," she'd said back then, when they told her the condition to participate in the tournament. "I don't mind. To be frank, I like it better that way."

And she'd smiled at Tsunade-sama, and allowed them to place another flow-restrictive seal on the chakra pipeline between her and Naruto. Because even though she'd only been Tsunade's apprentice for a couple of weeks, already she felt stronger and more confident; and she didn't want the crutch of Naruto's chakra to be too easy to lean on. There were too many strings attached.

Chakra to feed the child, that was all she really asked for, and chakra to keep herself alive in case everything else failed, though it might burn her to death before it could do any good.

It burned now, molten metal in her belly, breaking past the damming seal, forcing its way through her coil system. She fell to her knees with a little gasp. Her first instinct was to resist the flow, but it would just end up bursting through anyway. Convert -- she needed to grab hold of it and convert it into something she could _use _-- but there was so much of it.

_Sitting duck_, she realized through the shock. _Move, move, move!_ She knew it had been too long; their enemies wouldn't have the decency to wait until she got a handle on the demon chakra flood. But holding it back was taking so much of her concentration. She allowed some chakra to slip through, pour up her spine and down her arms, through her skin, making her fingernails ache and her muscles clench, and she climbed back up on her feet and forced her eyes open.

The world was painfully bright at first, a hundred snapshots too vivid for her brain. Colors felt -- off. Not the right spectrum.

But not off enough to mix up red and blue.

Naruto's eyes weren't blue.

He was sitting where he'd fallen, only two steps away from Sakura. The enemy nin, the tall, broad one who'd touched him and made him fall like a puppet with a dead puppeteer, stared at him in disbelief. The other enemy, with the pale green hair, was swaying on his feet, dark skin turned grayish and eyes unfocused, all the hallmarks of severe chakra drain.

Not-Naruto smiled then, or smirked, or bared fangs maybe. "...Heh."

Red-gold chakra boiled over, covered his bare chest and poured down over his pants and onto the ground, blackening it. Sakura's belly pulsed painfully and the world seemed to dance under her, like trying to stand on a moving swing. She didn't know how she kept her footing; sheer stubbornness, maybe.

"Naruto!" she yelled, praying he would hear and put a stop to it.

He glanced at her over his shoulder, and threw his head back, and laughed. It wasn't even a cruel laugh, but deeply amused, like life was just that hilarious. It chilled her to the bone. It wasn't Naruto laughter at all.

"What the fuck--" the green-haired nin growled, and fished a couple of kunai out of his pouch with a hand that shook with exhaustion.

Naruto's head tilted slowly as he considered the two strangers. Sakura opened her mouth, closed it, swallowed. They were enemies... but it wasn't _war_. It was serious -- it was _important _-- but in the end it was just a test, just a way to see how every country measured up.

There would be no measuring up if she didn't do something. There would just be a very one-sided slaughter.

"No!" she snapped, trying to get their attention. The tall one threw her a wary look, listening, but the green-haired one seemed too angry to bother. "No! Just run away --"

Naruto laughed softly, with a rough, pleased voice that made her feel queasy. "Oh yes. Run."

And then everything just kind of happened together -- green-hair throwing the kunai and Sakura throwing herself at Naruto and Naruto throwing his hand out, and -- chakra, enough to liquefy metal in mid-flight, a paw of fire that stretched faster than her eye could see.

Blood sizzled, splashed the rocks; the big guy yelled, "_Kon_!", as his teammate was swatted away like a mosquito, body clawed open in four separate lines. Sakura fell to her knees. Something was trying to burn its way out of her belly.

"You'll kill the child!" she screamed, hands clenched on her stomach.

A tan-and-black blur raced to his fallen comrade and carried him away as Naruto turned to look at her. Sakura's body still burned all over, a deep ache spreading through her chakra system. _Convert, convert_, she repeated to herself -- there should have been a seal to do that for her, but Kyuubi bursting through -- it wasn't there anymore.

What other safeties had been torn away? Oh god -- the baby, the baby -- possessed, monstrous -- dying, burned alive inside her where it should have been safe --

"If it's so weak," he started with disdain, and she didn't think past the sudden rage. Naruto's head snapped to the side, cheek sliced open by her lengthening nails.

Panting, hand smarting where his chakra had sparked at her skin, she glared at the creature. Not Naruto, never Naruto -- they didn't even look alike, the demon's eyes a malevolent, narrowed red.

He lifted a hand to his already-healing cheek, and wiped the blood with his fingers, and licked them, his red eyes fixed onto her, and _she was going to die_.

"Down!"

Sakura hit the ground. A blue and black shape flew over her head, crackling with lightning. Impact. Explosion. She rolled away, skidding down the slope. Crap, no, the canyon wasn't safe, she couldn't let herself fall. She dug her fingers into the earth and screamed again as her own weight tried to tear her long, curved nails out. She kept moving -- got her footing, scrambled up. Sasuke and Kyuubi were rushing at each other, crashing and then coming apart again.

The katana-wielding woman who had been sparring with Sasuke was crouching on a boulder, her long, black tail of hair singed at the end, watching the fight in utter confusion.

"Run already!" Sakura snarled at her as she reached the boulder.

"What?"

"He'll tear out your guts and dance in them if Sasuke can't hold him back!"

As her teammates rolled downhill, Sakura chanced a glance their way. Red-gold chakra still danced, burning Sasuke's skin whenever he darted close enough to strike -- burning inside her belly like an echo. Her fingers still ached, though the claws had stopped growing. She swallowed the bitter desire to go and help. She would only be a hindrance. Even Sasuke was barely fast enough to stay ahead of Kyuubi's harshest attacks. If she went, she would get in their way and die. Or get Sasuke killed -- even worse.

The whole valley shook, a cloud of dust racing her up the slope, overtaking her in a second. She couldn't hear the crackle of the Chidori over the roar of earth and rocks tumbling down the cliffs, and she coughed in the dust.

In a minute there wouldn't be a cliff left anymore -- no canyon, no slope, no bowl-shaped valley.

"What the hell is going on?" the enemy girl snarled as she burst out of the dust on Sakura's flank. The giant wolf followed, ears flat on his neck, the old, graying three-tailed fox dangling from his mouth like a cub.

The smaller foxes were like a wave of fur through the rocks, a torrent running upstream, nothing in their eyes but blind animal panic; Sakura almost tripped on one of them.

The ground was pulled out from under her feet like a carpet even as she ran, and she could see the trees lining up the edges of the basin slowly topple inwards. Rocks started rolling down, loose soil flowing and piling up in strange spurts, tripping her up. She didn't have _time _to trip!

"Run, run, run!"

Katana-girl and her wolf darted ahead of her. Through the smoke she could see a hulking shape, the tallest ninja struggling to carry his teammate.

"Ride!" the girl snapped, sending the wolf at them, but when the big guy tried to jump the earth slid out from under his feet and he landed on his knees. A green-haired head lolled bonelessly.

Sakura could already see Naruto's face when he woke up and found out he had gutted a guy, killed him. She veered to meet them, snatched a hold on the big guy's arm and heaved to get him back up. The katana girl's hand flew to her weapon, but she held herself back at the last moment and helped him clamber on, and then the wolf was bounding up, leaving the two girls behind.

Channeling chakra to her feet, Sakura kicked off and vaulted over a rock; she landed wrong, rolling and bruising her shoulder, but it didn't matter. She'd passed the most dangerous point of the landslide. There it was -- lower bushes, flatter ground, the sea wind.

"There!" Sakura pointed out; there were deep-rooted rocky formations straight ahead, a more solid shelter than bushes and unsteady earth.

Behind them the ground trembled and dust rose to block out the sun as the avalanche of earth hit the canyon and crumbled it closed.

She couldn't see her teammates. Bile in her throat, Sakura turned around to keep an eye on the enemy trio.

They were from Grass, she noticed without really caring, and they weren't paying much attention to her at the moment. The forehead protector was probably the only thing that had saved green-hair's eye from being clawed out; his artfully layered pretty-boy hair had been burned off on one side and a small cut on his brow bled profusely.

It was nothing compared to the exposed ribs and pierced abdomen muscles on the rest of him. Kyuubi hadn't missed his organs by much, and if he got an infection it would be irrelevant.

Sakura sent a ripple of soothing chakra through her belly, seeking the fetus, assuring herself that it was still living. It was, but that was all she could tell. She didn't know if it had been injured. Her control wasn't fine enough to tell; she would have to wait for Tsunade-sama to check. In the meantime there were other things that needed to be done.

She took a step forward. There was a snik-sound and then she had a long blade at her throat. The wolf snarled low in his throat at her. The white of his eyes was still showing. Sakura stilled. The animal's nerve might break first, and then no amount of logic and calm would help.

"Back off."

Sakura ground her teeth. "Listen, I'm trained as a medic--"

But on the ground where he'd laid down green-hair, the big guy was taking his glove off with steady professionalism. He had blood on his clothes, from his friend's wounds and from sharp cuts made from Sasuke's kunai no doubt -- but underneath the skin was whole. And then she understood that she and Sasuke had guessed wrong. Despite his bulk and the big quarterstaff he favored, he wasn't their heavy-hitter -- he was their medic-nin.

"We don't need your help, Leaf," the black-haired girl said, and her lips twisted in a cultured sneer that meant she was thinking worse.

Sakura's fists clenched and she glared, wishing nothing more than to punch her in the jaw. But the sword was still under her neck; and if the girl was fast enough to hold her own against Sasuke, even for a short time, then she was too fast for her.

Sasuke. Sakura needed to conserve her chakra for when she had to heal him, anyway. But. But.

Sakura stepped back out of reach and swung her fist at a close-by rock, so frustrated she could have screamed. What was she supposed to do? Go back, to watch the fight so she could intervene? Or -- no, make sure they got the hell out of the area first, and learn how to fix it.

"What the hell did you do to Naruto?"

The big guy didn't look up, hands gloved in green chakra, but he tilted his head toward her a little. "I didn't do _that_. Berserk fits -- that's not a trick I know."

"I know you didn't. What were you trying for? How do I fix it? You just -- touched him..." She narrowed her eyes. Just a touch, and Naruto had fallen. "... Medical jutsu, huh."

"Stop distracting him," katana-girl snapped.

"It's alright, Zenko." He paused, hands resting over his friend's ribs, feeling for breaks. "Yes. It goes directly for the nervous system -- used for surgery, where drugs would be metabolized too fast, temporarily closes the connection between mind and body so pain wouldn't wake them."

Oh _hell_. Just the thing -- the precise thing to get Kyuubi free from Naruto's control. Suppress Naruto's awareness in such a way that even his subconscious couldn't get in the way. And then -- no, she was still missing something... Otherwise Kyuubi would have been struggling for control every time Naruto got knocked out.

"I'd have to touch your teammate to fix it."

Sakura shook her head grimly. That... would take some doing. "How long does it take to wear off?"

"Eight hours. Ten."

Sakura clenched her fists, and twitched in surprise when her claws pierced her skin. She'd forgotten about them. "... That's not happening."

"What _is _wrong with him anyway?"

Sakura hesitated. "--Botched experiment." Not too far from the truth. "Teach me how to wake him."

The big guy shook his head with what seemed to be honest regret. "It's a secret Grass Country exclusive."

"Your teammate, your mess," the girl -- Zenko -- added with another cold glare.

Sakura exploded. "Teach me how to wake him because if I don't he's going to track you down and he's going to kill you all -- there, is that good enough for you?!"

Sasuke was fighting. Kyuubi was -- not safe, but manageable, when Naruto was awake to rein him in if he got too far. But Naruto wasn't. Kyuubi was completely free to act for the first time in eighteen years. And she was hiding in the background again because she was still too weak even now, and they were refusing her the way to fix things, and -- shit!

"...Why would he?" Zenko asked, frowning as if she was starting to believe Sakura a little, despite herself.

"Because he's a predator," Sakura said quietly, desperate to convince them. "He's a sadistic predator who stalks and kills for fun. Rabbits aren't going to challenge him, and you three are the closest."

The girl straightened her back and snapped, "Maneki. Get Kon. We're moving out."

Sakura's mouth opened to protest.

"Can't stop healing now, Zen. I'll lose him." The green light intensified under Maneki's big hands, knitting muscle back together. There was still a large slice across green-hair's belly, organs visible underneath.

Sakura sneaked around Zenko and knelt on the other side of green-hair's body. "I'll help. Tell me how to wake up Naruto. I think -- he'll let me get close to him." Perhaps. If she played it right. If Kyuubi was in the right mood -- if he didn't want to punish her for clawing him up. If he underestimated her again.

She placed her hands over Maneki's; after a second of hesitation, he nodded imperceptibly. She concentrated her chakra and gave it to him.

For a moment it was difficult to purify her chakra so that it shone clear green and was suitable for medical jutsu. The raw demon chakra was still tainting her body, and it didn't want to twist that way. She spared a thought to wonder why she wasn't still being flooded by more... Perhaps the distance. It might happen again when she got back to wake Naruto. She had to be ready.

Behind her Zenko fumed, but she turned away on her heel to keep watch. The dust had settled.

"Are they still fighting?" Sakura asked; she couldn't turn to look.

"Can't see them."

Sakura swallowed nervously. Surely Sasuke wouldn't be caught under the landslide -- no, he had learned a couple of basic Doton techniques from Kakashi-sensei. He'd be okay.

The old three-tailed fox crawled closer and gave a long, grave look at his unconscious summoner. His front paws were almost shaped like hands, Sakura saw. One of them was broken -- crushed.

Then he looked up at Sakura and it clicked in her mind. Fox summon. Naruto unconscious, unable to wake up, and someone calling up foxes.

Someone calling up Kyuubi no Youko.

"We did not know," the fox said soberly. "We would not have been so foolish."

She shook her head, still amazed, her hands on Maneki's to offer more chakra. "But this isn't how summoning works. You call up a specific individual, not just ... call."

The green-haired boy muttered something that sounded like "Goddamn Leaf." He cracked an eye open and glared fuzzily. "Old man... shut up."

"Trade secret, huh?" Sakura retorted, rolling her eyes at him. An area summoning, calling up local animals, instead of targeting and displacing an individual beast no matter how far away it was? She'd never heard the thing might be possible. Just their luck.

She took her hands off Maneki's as he finished up. He started closing another, more shallow slice, one that still dug into the muscle but didn't bare Kon's organs to view; Sakura sat back and frowned down at the wounded boy.

"Piece of advice for you -- don't summon again. He'll find you."

Maneki glanced at her and blinked. "Wait. Your ... experiment. He's some kind of _fox_?"

Sakura shrugged, not meeting his eyes. It wasn't like the village heads didn't know who was the demon bearer for Kyuubi; it didn't matter much if she let that info slip. She didn't want that idiot to light up another 'come and get me' signal flare. What if it worked anytime Naruto took a nap?

...Oh. Was that why he'd started sleepwalking again?

Not the right moment to ponder that question. "So. You told me you'd explain how to stop him."

Zenko glowered for a second before turning pointedly away. Maneki nodded as he gathered his thoughts, still working on his teammate's cut. "How are you with the nervous system?"

"... I'm... not." Sakura looked away, embarrassed; but Sasuke and Naruto needed her, so she lifted her chin and stared him down. "Haven't started on it yet. But if you show me, I'll get it." Sakura looked down at the old fox. "I'm not about to let Maneki-san knock me out, though. Do you mind if he demonstrates with you?"

The three-tailed fox nodded his grey-tinged head. "If it keeps the great one from his revenge, I will accept. Maneki-kun?"

Maneki finished reattaching the muscles and sighed. "Fine. I'll try to show you how to stop him."

"Mmh. Do show her," Kyuubi purred from his comfortable sprawl on a tall rock, on the opposite direction from the ex-valley.

Zenko's hands flew to her pouches before Sakura could even fully realize what Kyuubi being here -- lounging, _not fighting _-- meant. A handful of kunai flew at him. He didn't bother to deflect them; he inclined his head out of the way, and allowed another two blades to slice through the meat of his shoulder and upper arm.

Then the wounds sizzled closed.

"You aim like shit," he said with dark amusement.

Sakura threw herself at Zenko and tackled her out of the way as a whip of red chakra slashed the air.

Kyuubi growled softly, raked his claws over the rock he lounged on, leaving gouges, and gave Sakura a displeased look. "Bitch, stop getting in the way."

Sakura's belly pulsed painfully and she clenched a hand over the seal inked on her skin. It felt red-hot through the cloth.

"Get off me!" Zenko kicked her off and leaped back to her feet. "I'll just get his heart--"

"I do not think it will work," the old fox said with quiet desperation.

"He's right, it really won't," Sakura said hurriedly. She didn't have a clue, actually -- but he healed so fast, he'd probably fix himself the second the blade came out. Probably. She wasn't going to bet on it. She didn't want Naruto to die.

She didn't want Naruto to die. She'd rather allow Kyuubi to rampage than kill Naruto. Even though he might never forgive her.

Sakura shook her head and clenched her fists, nicking herself with the claws. It didn't matter; the slices were shallow and she was better with fists than with open hands. She couldn't just give up yet; there had to be ways to stop him, even though she couldn't think of one right now with the pressure of his chakra and murderous intent all around --

Escape, she remembered Kakashi saying. Escape, regroup. _Then_ plan.

But she couldn't. Because -- "Where is Sasuke?"

Kyuubi gave an uncaring shrug, not even gracing her with a glance.

Sakura stiffened in rage. "What the _hell _have you done to Sasuke?!"

Kyuubi growled at her, upper lip curling to bare a thick fang. "Stop screeching. You don't need a tongue to be useful to me."

The threat made her pause. Not very long. "... Where is Sasuke," she repeated, as steady as she could. He couldn't be dead, he just couldn't. There was no way he would have been killed. Especially not in such a short time.

She didn't give a damn about any sleep jutsu, Naruto would have woken up. There was just no way.

Kyuubi's eyes slid away from her like she wasn't worth his attention, taking in the katana in the other girl's hand, the wounded man on the ground, the medic-nin in his combat stance over the wounded boy, the summons. The old fox was so flat on the ground he looked like a moth-eaten carpet.

Kyuubi sniffed the air, Naruto's nose and Naruto's face but the body language was so wrong. "... You're the one with the cat." he said, looking straight at Maneki. "Hm. Might as well start with you."

She saw Maneki twitch back as if to dodge, and then glance down at his wounded friend, and she realized he was going to stand his ground. Because if he ran and Kyuubi switched targets then there would be no one in range to stop him.

She started to move -- couldn't take a second step. Maneki had thrown a handful of kunai to slow Kyuubi down, and Kyuubi had vaporized them in mid-air without breaking stride and she couldn't even scream. Her knees hit the ground and she curled up around her belly.

Chakra overload again, damn it, no -- her muscles started to ache as she redirected it as far away from her womb as possible. She had no chakra-heavy techniques to her name, with how little she could usually spare -- apart from her healing, but the demon chakra just refused to be used that way. How to spend it, get it out, get it away -- what jutsu did she know?

She lifted her head, squinted; the world had gone weird too-sharp colors again. Red-orange fire danced on the hard-packed earth, blackened tall rocks. Zenko stifled an incensed cry as her katana went red-hot, burning her hand. The Grass kunoichi had gotten him -- Kyuubi -- Sakura could see, sword going straight through his side, and he hissed in annoyance between his fangs. Maneki had a knee on the ground and his sliced shoulder bled in fat red drops onto his injured teammate, who was just awake enough to glare furiously and push himself away inch by inch with elbows and heels.

Sakura gritted her teeth and started shaping seals, fighting the red chakra inside her every step of the way.

She could smell cooked meat from there, but Zenko didn't let go of the sword -- just pulled it free and went into a two-handed grip and sliced again, low to the ground, aiming for the back of Kyuubi's ankles.

He jumped over, predictably.

Maneki surged forward like an avalanche and planted two green-glowing hands on the middle of his chest. Sakura almost lost her hand seal in shock as she watched Kyuubi fly back and crash into the ground.

For a second she thought Maneki had dealt actual damage; Kyuubi jumped back into a crouch, but his upper lip was curled up in an angry snarl and he had a hand pressed to his chest.

Then he uncoiled like a spring, flying at the two Grass nins so fast Sakura's eye couldn't follow.

She could calculate where he would be, though. And she knew exactly how fast her jutsu traveled.

Water coalesced and shot forward, pulled out of the air itself. It was a basic Suiton jutsu, nothing complicated, just a spurt of water. She fed it all the chakra she could, and it came out like a water cannon instead.

A cloud of steam bloomed when it rammed through Kyuubi's aura, blocking out the battlefield; she couldn't tell what had happened. Water ran downhill back to where she was kneeling, and it was warm to the touch, soaking her dress and shoes. Sakura climbed back to her feet slowly, rebalancing her energies. She'd overloaded the jutsu, and some of the energy had come back to her instead of going neatly into the spell, but it was manageable now.

"Nice," someone said, two steps away from her, and she gave a full-body twitch and jerked around.

"Sasuke!"

He was bleeding, of course, she'd expected as much, but not that badly -- scratches and slices, not the deep red gushing she had feared. Hair in disarray, dust caked over his wounds -- standing on his own two feet, and not appearing to favor anything. She'd imagined so much worse.

"What hap--"

A bellowing roar cut her off and she looked up at the battleground again. Kyuubi stood where the Grass team had been, but of the trio there was not a trace. Kyuubi paced angrily, fingers curling, raking his claws through imaginary flesh. Water ran downhill in little rivulets on the hard earth, making just enough mud to speckle his pant legs. He was soaked, blond bangs sticking to his face, water running down bare shoulders, washing down the blood he had shed when Zenko ran him through. The wound was long since closed, of course.

"Doton," Sasuke said quietly to her as he moved to stand by her side.

Sakura glanced down. Underground, all three of them? It made the Grass team a little safer, but not too much. They wouldn't be able to tunnel very far, and if they went too fast Kyuubi would hear them. He definitely had enough chakra to take out a chunk of the hillside.

She'd had all the landslides she could handle today. "We should move up," she said back, just as softly. Sasuke nodded and started moving, giving Kyuubi a wide berth.

Kyuubi kept pacing, staring down at the ground, tilting his head like a dog listening to faraway howls. At least his chakra was calmer; no longer a complete aura, just a handful of gold tendrils curling and rising from his shoulders.

"... What happened to you?" she whispered to Sasuke, her eyes still on the blond creature that wasn't her teammate. "You didn't come back for so long -- did he knock you out?"

Sasuke grumbled something under his breath and pulled a leaf out of his hair.

"... No," he eventually muttered. "Listen, it doesn't matter, we need to figure out what to do. What do we know?"

She shook her head. She was even more curious now, but it could wait. He was there, it was good enough. "Naruto is being suppressed via sleep jutsu. It'll take at least eight hours to wear off. And I think..." She hesitated. "Green-haired guy is a fox summoner."

Sasuke made a little hissing sound as he took that in. "Huh. Tried aiming at the scroll?"

Sakura blinked; she hadn't thought of that, she'd just looked for a solution on the medic side of things. "Didn't see it. I don't think Kyuubi would go back anyway. He summons weird -- attracts local beasts instead of teleporting them to him."

Kyuubi stuck his claws in a waist-high boulder and heaved it out of its hole, sending it rolling away. He peered down at the ground beneath it, scowling. He looked two seconds away from puffing up his cheeks like Naruto did when he felt grumpy, and for a moment she couldn't remember why he had terrified her so much.

"Huh." Sasuke frowned, staring at the fox.

A muscle in his jaw kept jumping. Sakura tilted her head, inquiring. "What is it?"

"...Nothing."

It wasn't, of course, but he wasn't going to tell her. Frustration about the situation most likely. "We need to do something," she said as she watched Kyuubi slash at the ground with chakra claws, a hand clenched on her belly. The surge was minimal, easily dispersed.

"Sakura?"

"Backlash," she said tersely, because she didn't want to show how much the situation worried her. "The damming seal is gone."

"Shit."

"Mmh."

Kyuubi clawed at the ground again, slashing earth away in deep gouges here and there -- and then his seemingly random pattern started focusing on a specific area. His shoulders straightened slightly, the cant of his head changed. Sakura couldn't see his face and wasn't used to his body language, but she could tell that his predatory interest -- almost catlike in its playfulness -- was coming back.

"He's found them," she said, and bit her lip.

Sasuke didn't say anything for a second, and then answered with a brusqueness that startled her. "We should consider letting him have them."

The muscles in Sakura's shoulders tightened and she forbade herself to look his way. From the tone of his voice, Sasuke didn't like his own suggestion either.

"They're enemies after all," she said tonelessly.

"Yeah."

"...Pretend I'm not pregnant."

Sasuke took his eyes off Kyuubi and stared at her, sharingan eyes spinning. "--What?"

"No, pretend I'm Naruto. Now what should we do?"

Sasuke closed his eyes briefly.

"... Fight." He let out a short, irritated breath. "Problem is, in the end it won't do a thing. He wants to kill them first. He'll swat us down, go after them, and then come back and beat on us more. He doesn't want to break us for good. We're better toys."

Which, she understood, was how Kyuubi had treated Sasuke. "But he won't kill us," she replied with more certainty than she felt. Kyuubi was now digging in a specific area, his face turned her way just enough to let her see the fanged smirk. "... He won't beat _me_ up," she said. Not head or body blows at least -- skin, limbs, muscles, yes, but she should be safe from internal trauma. "But be it now or later, he'll beat on you until you can't move and then we'll be sitting ducks."

Sasuke twitched his head, sending dark locks flying away from his face. "I don't care."

Sakura took a deep breath, braced herself, and buried every single misgiving she had so nothing showed in her voice but determination.

"When they pop up, grab them and run. I'll distract him until he loses your tracks. When the sleep jutsu breaks... I guess you'll know."

"... Sakura, _are you joking_," Sasuke asked flatly.

"Sasuke-kun. He's going to kill them. Probably by dismemberment." Sasuke opened his mouth but she just kept talking over him. "And then Naruto will wake up, and what will you tell him? 'Sorry, it was easier on us to let you tear them to pieces'?"

"Sakura," Sasuke protested in a quiet voice, his hand closing around her wrist.

Sakura allowed herself to lean on Sasuke's shoulder for a second, and gave him a fleeting smile. "He won't hurt me," she said. "He hasn't yet. He's been all talk with me. I'll be fine. Maybe a bit bruised, but fine. You need to get ready to go."

She started forward.

Sasuke's hand tightened briefly, as if he was thinking of holding her back, but she took another step and it released her and fell away. He followed without another word, spreading out so they would each have more space to maneuver. His jaw was set in a grim, displeased way.

He didn't have to like it, Sakura told herself. She didn't have the chakra to heal him from a bloody pulp back into a human being, much less the know-how. Therefore Sasuke needed to stay away until Naruto woke up. And _she_ needed to do her best to make sure Kyuubi wasn't going to rampage all over the island.

Kyuubi glanced at her when she was a dozen feet away, but by then she was already cocking her fist and swinging it down to the hard packed ground.

She'd never held and released so much chakra in one go before, and the timing was perfect. Destruction radiated out around her. It was strangely exhilarating.

Kyuubi jumped back, landed in a deep crouch on unstable terrain, snarled at her as his claws dug in for purchase. Sasuke blurred from sight, dust swirling behind him; Kyuubi's head snapped around to track him. Sakura couldn't allow him to do that; it was her job to cover Sasuke's back. But with the ground already broken, the impact of another punch wouldn't travel far.

Her fingers flitted through the water-hose hand seals; she got Kyuubi right in the face. The jet was a lot less impressive this time around, but it did its job. Kyuubi snarled, loud and irritated; by the time he had shaken waterlogged bangs out of his face, she'd seen Sasuke, Maneki and Zenko fade from view, the green-haired boy thrown across Maneki's huge shoulders with his head lolling limply.

Genjutsu. One she could see from her peripheral vision for a couple of seconds, like a desert mirage, but they were out of range before she could pinpoint it. She had no idea if Kyuubi was any better at genjutsu than she was -- but it felt like he should be; fox-spirits were known for their illusions.

Naruto was abysmal at it; she felt a twinge at the thought of him. At least he wasn't aware of what he was doing. She told herself it was a good thing.

"You little _bitch_."

Suddenly the air was flooded with killing intent and burning chakra.

Sakura gasped, a hand flying to her belly, allowing him to see exactly how much it hurt. "You'll kill the child," she gasped. "You really will."

For a few seconds it looked like he wouldn't care, red eyes disdainful and angry. Worry crept up her spine, resolve wavering. Then with a wordless snarl he turned his back on her, stiff and frustrated, and suddenly she could breathe again.

The raging chakra was gone, smothered. She'd been right. She'd been _right_. He cared. The threats, and the implication that if the child was too weak to survive that was fine with him, it was all talk -- well, maybe not all talk, but... She swallowed a lone, giddy, chuckle and forced herself to sober up. She might have some measure of safety, but the Grass trio didn't. And Sasuke-kun...

Kyuubi scanned the area for his fleeing prey. The ground was deceptively flat, though, and Sakura knew it. If the group had reached one of the numerous canyons then he wasn't going to see them. She hoped they kept away, kept safe. (She also hoped Sasuke robbed them blind, but that was rather secondary at the moment.)

She slowly stepped closer, still not sure what she would do. If she could have guaranteed herself enough lag time to learn Maneki's technique, she would have gone with them -- but Kyuubi never held back against Sasuke; he couldn't be rearguard. And without a rearguard at all, Kyuubi would track them down all too soon.

"If you get in my way again, I'll hurt you," Kyuubi said, his back still on her.

He didn't say 'kill'. It was still all talk, even with the dark murderous vibes he gave off. Sakura felt a twinge of relief, mixed with anger and an odd sort of hurt. Even with Tsunade-sama's punches, she still wasn't an opponent he felt he had to take seriously. Turning his back on her so casually -- it stung. He would never turn his back on Sasuke like that.

For a second she considered acting meek, pretending to be harmless, submissive, trying to talk him out of things. Flattering him maybe, calling him Kyuubi-sama so he'd be in a better mood, and no, to hell with that.

She gathered the demon chakra in her fist. It was unstable; but that didn't matter quite as much if it impacted with flesh as opposed to a stony surface. She cocked her fist back and lengthened her steps.

"It's alright," she said, in what she thought was a pretty calm tone, all things considered. "That's fair. I'll be doing the same."

When Kyuubi turned toward her, his expression was irritated enough; but at the last second it changed into offended disbelief.

Then her fist plowed into his face.

She watched him roll on the uneven ground, come to a sudden stop against a jutting rock; the impact almost unseated it.

She felt so calm suddenly. It was strange, a knife's-edge balance between fear and exhilaration. "You know, I really don't like it when you turn your back on me."

He pushed himself up on his hands, shaking his head like a wet dog. He snarled. This time at least his red eyes were looking straight at her.

It was tempting to close the distance, to keep pressing, but she wasn't fast enough to trust her taijutsu against his. She threw herself to the side the second he pounced, knowing how fast he was. He clipped her shoulder anyway; she stumbled, whirled around, found him already coming back for another pounce. She flung an explosive tag straight at him, used the blast to propel herself to the closest boulder. She rolled immediately behind it, before the dust even fell, out of sight. Her back stung all over from the shockwave.

Wear him down -- that was the only way to stop such a force of nature. Slow him down little by little, break his momentum. Keep him from taking control of the fight.

She only had a couple of explosive tags left.

"Hiding?" Kyuubi drawled.

His voice was still far enough that she didn't worry yet. Her eyes roamed over the broken rocks, the dust, the low bushes.

"I thought you wanted to hurt me."

If she could cross this flat, arid area, disappear into the greener hollow the river cut across the island -- there were trees and bushes there. She knew how to use those. She could stall him better.

"Bitten off more than you can chew, have you, bitch."

Well, at least she'd definitely graduated from slut.

She plunged a hand in her pouch. Smoke tag, some candy -- she didn't even have any soldier pills; they were contraindicated in her condition -- a couple of shuriken and ... oh.

Yes, perhaps she could use that.

Kyuubi landed atop her boulder, claws raking the stone. Sakura gasped and took a couple of steps away from him, stumbling, legs visibly shaking. Kyuubi's cold, watchful expression turned into a contemptuous sneer, and he stalked forward with obvious irritation.

"You're not worth my time." He snorted, threw an impatient look at the direction Sasuke and the Grass nin had disappeared. "They'll show more guts... One way or another."

Growling under his breath in a put-upon way, he slipped off the rock, stepped toward her.

Then the wires snapped out of the dust to wrap around his leg with a loud twang.

It was a spider web of steel, wrapping three, four times up his calf, forcing his knee to fold so he stumbled. Anchored to the closest half-dozen boulders, it would take even him a few seconds to rip it out. She'd intended to use the time to flee.

Instead she gathered chakra and charged.

Kyuubi might not want to hurt her. He might not want to fight her. He might not want to see her bleed. It hurt her pride, but it was convenient. She didn't care. But she would never let him hurt Sasuke.

She was close, only a couple of steps away. He was still off-balance, hindered. Her right fist snapped forward.

It glanced off his jaw as he twisted aside with animal flexibility. The chakra exploded out nonetheless, the recoil flinging her hand and his upper body aside, fouling her momentum.

Something hooked her shoulder and threw her to the ground hard enough to leave a gouge in the earth, knocking the breath out of her. He rolled on top of her before she could move, red eyes furious. She raised her other hand, her other fist.

His teeth sank in her left forearm up to the gum. For a second it didn't even hurt; she just felt the pressure. Then her bone cracked in his jaw.

Screaming, she exploded into movement. Feet and knees hammered at his body; he gave her arm a shake. Her blood flew from his mouth, landed in warm drops on her face. Her vision darkened, dizziness and nausea rising together to choke her. She could feel the muscles tear. He'd sliced a vein.

She elbowed him in the temple, screaming again when his fangs were wrenched out.

She didn't even really see the backhand that caught her in the side of the face.

_r__ed bridge blue water green sky, all dark, all dirtied, river swelled up with rust-gold and it got the planks all wet under her, all wet and that was just so wrong. water belonged under the bridge, not over it, trying to wash her away. Naruto was there upstream on his island, but he was a curled-up ball of tarnished gold fur and he didn't move at all and it _hurt so much she woke up.

She took a little sobbing breath, swimming in and out of consciousness. So stupid to think he wouldn't hurt her at all; her cheekbone was cracked too and her neck hurt. The left side of her tunic was wet with a widening puddle of her blood.

Kyuubi's weight pinned down her thighs. He was so close his blond bangs tickled her forehead. Killing intent roiled off him, choking her. His lips were wet with her blood, as was his chin, like a lion that had just finished gorging itself.

Hadn't killed her yet, she told herself in between two hitching breaths. Nothing was even really broken. Could fix it. Could. If he...

If oh god why was he leaning closer, no, that was more than close enough -- more than close enough, those thick teeth so close to her face, her eyes -- she could still be pregnant without her eyes --

His blood-wet lips brushed her puffed-up cheekbone, his tongue traced the split in the skin his knuckles had left. It stung.

He was growling, so softly it sounded like a purr. Foxes didn't purr, she reminded herself -- threat, not pleasure. The low thrumming sound resonated in her bones. He lifted a hand and she flinched when she thought he'd hit her, then flinched again when it touched her hair instead, tangled messy pink strands around claw-tipped fingers.

"Silly little bitch," he said, so quiet it almost sounded like an endearment.

It wasn't just the eye color and the moods. Something in the way his brow furrowed, his lip quirked, the way he hooded his lids, the way his jaw muscles clenched -- it made all Naruto's leftover baby fat disappear, made the planes of his face subtly different. He looked older than Naruto, and more like a brother than a twin.

He tugged on her hair, forcing her to bare the side of her neck, brushed the tip of his fangs against her skin. A subtle, intimate threat that didn't mean 'I'll tear out your jugular' at all.

He wasn't Naruto, he didn't even look like Naruto, it didn't matter what he did to her. She wasn't going to get flashbacks when Naruto -- later, when he came to her and -- leaned close -- kissed her -- nothing in common to Kyuubi's breath on her face, not the same mood or the same person and it didn't even look like Naruto's body. (it did, it did.)

She breathed out, and in, and out again. Had to be calm, rational.

She'd rather get raped than have an eye bitten out. She was trained to deal with rape.

"Naruto," she whispered back, hand feeling for her thigh pouch. "Naruto, wake up. Wake up." Her finger slipped through a cold metallic ring.

She'd expected Kyuubi to laugh at her, lazy like a well-entertained predator, but the tightly-leashed rage that flared briefly in his eyes caught her by surprise. She'd been wrong, he wasn't satisfied by his win enough to be content with the mental trauma he inflicted. He was still wound up enough he might decide to tear into her again.

If she used that kunai on him, he might kill her out of sheer rage.

If she didn't kill him with the first blow -- sever his spine, pierce his brain -- he would kill her. Sakura didn't want to kill him, and if she just threatened him he would never back off -- he'd counterattack immediately. The weapon was useless.

"Naruto--"

Kyuubi's hand closed around her bleeding arm and tightened, making her give a short, gut-clenching scream.

"Hey, you! What the hell are you doing?!"

Her first thought was 'Sasuke', but even as she had it she knew it couldn't be. The voice was too high-pitched, for one thing. She lifted her head off the ground to scan what she could see of their surroundings.

Kids. Three kids. Thirteen year old at most. A black-haired girl and a bespectacled boy and one with a blade-tipped staff. Their expressions of shock twisted faces she should have remembered.

Then the one with the staff moved forward, and she noticed the wooden shaft lacked ten inches off the end and had been bandaged, so it wouldn't splinter all the way down. His little round-cheeked face was red with offense and something like betrayal.

"What's wrong with you?! I thought you were a nice guy!"

Kyuubi rolled off her just as she recognized the kid Naruto had sparred with, the one he'd finished with his stupid naked woman jutsu -- was it just this morning? It felt like months ago.

Sakura pushed herself up on an elbow, forced green chakra down her cracked bone haphazardly. Maybe she'd heal herself wrong. She didn't care; Tsunade-sama could fix it later. She needed two working arms right now. But when she managed to kneel up her head swam from the blood loss.

Kyuubi was still advancing toward the kids, body stiff with unexpected rage.

Had they gotten a team of uncooperative assholes to safety just to get three friendly brats killed? No, no, no, hell no -- Naruto would recover from getting rid of three enemies, but not from them, not them -- "Run!" she screamed at them, struggling to stand.

She saw them hesitate, resolve wavering. The guy with the glasses took a step back.

Three tails of fiery chakra fanned out behind Kyuubi; the backlash caught her like a mule's kick to the stomach, dropping her again.

"Kyuubi, no!"

A fourth tail; the world started to blur.

"You'll kill the baby--" she saw him pause, hesitate -- just one second, just one, but then he snarled and shook his head like a dog out of water, and the killing intent was so thick in the air she wasn't even surprised to see two of the kids fall to their knees, sobbing in fright.

The one with the spear was still up, bracing himself heavily on his weapon, eyes glassy as he desperately held his ground in front of his teammates.

"_I'll _kill the baby!"

It was probably the surprise that made Kyuubi glance back over his shoulder.

She climbed back up to her feet, hands firm as she held her last kunai point-first against her belly.

"I'd rather bleed out right here," she said. "I'd rather bleed out right here than bear a child you'd call yours."

He turned halfway toward her, stared at her with burning eyes, his face and bare chest streaked with her blood.

" ... I'm here. You can hurt me a lot more than this. I'm a medic-nin. I can last longer than a kid ever would. Just let them go."

He hung his head then, blond spikes shadowing his face, and it was such a Naruto gesture she didn't notice the third tail had disappeared from view until the ground exploded under her. She was still desperately trying to twist to face the ground so she'd land on her feet when a returning swing caught her right in the ribs.

Fly. Crash.

Her back hurt. Probably because of the boulder Kyuubi had just flung her at. Should have hurt more, but the red chakra was inside her too, so the rock had splintered instead of her spine.

She vaguely thought that she should move, but even turning her head to the side took so much effort.

Someone was crying up there, big gulping sobs, so she tried again.

His teammates' faces were wet with tears, but his wasn't; it was just kind of surprised. Kyuubi was sitting on his haunches beside him. The spear protruded from the boy's stomach, the ribbon at the other end moving like a flag in the wind of Kyuubi's chakra. And then Kyuubi cocked back his claws.


	19. TW3 chpt7: Sasuke: Sunset

_-Grass Country OCs : __**Maneki**__: huge tank-like medic-nin, rather patient, summons cats. __**Kon**__ : fox summoner, brown skin and pale green hair, bit of an asshole, injured. __**Zenko**__: girl, wolf summoner, katana specialist, long black hair, suspicious and antisocial._

_**-The reason this is so late: **__I had a major dilemma over the plot there. It was planned from the start of part 3 but when I actually got there I started thinking "wait, does this make sense" and, well, I'll spare you the bazillion alternate scenes I couldn't make myself like enough to switch this out, and the months of zomg soul-searchiiiing and crippling, ridiculous levels of worry. XD;; I'm still not entirely confident it'll work for everyone, but then again nothing can be liked by everyone and the important thing I have to keep in mind is, am I having more fun writing it like that? The answer is yes. I hope you can have fun with it, too._

_-__**Non-linearity FTW!**__ Sorry if the first half of the chapter is confusing, I was experimenting with flashbacks. Hopefully it will all make sense if you keep going a little bit._

_-edit: eep! I'd forgotten to mention, I wrote two lemons for the story -- one being the threesome thing that should have happened at the end of teamwork 2 with the seal, and the second one being the first time Naruto and Sakura have the sexytiems on their own without Sasuke. (first time sasunaru and sasusaku are in the works.) The links are in my profile, and of course will only be clicked by people over 18. Right? Right. (if you're not, for god's sake don't tell me.)_

* * *

**Chapter 7 : ****Sunset  
(Sasuke)**

**Then**:

The old three-tailed fox slid in his grasp, fur slick with blood. Sasuke shifted the animal back up against his chest as he ran; the fox didn't complain, even though he'd been a little rough. The animal wasn't heavy, mostly made of skin and bones, but tall enough to be awkward to carry.

The jounin-sensei should have been there over a half-hour ago.

The cloud of dust rising from the landslide Kyuubi had started was as good as a beacon flare. Big-scale destruction meant dangerous, higher-level fighters, but also a higher likelihood of exhausted or badly injured opponents. Only one day left for the test and those still in the running were starting to feel the need to take bigger risks if they wanted to get anywhere. Sasuke understood that. It was jus strange that they weren't.

Sasuke slanted a wary look at the girl with the katana. She was the only one with her arms free; he didn't like that. If the fox hadn't needed all its concentration to keep holding the genjutsu that hid their escape, Sasuke was sure she would have attacked already. He knew the type.

He threw a quick glance over his shoulder, sharingan cutting through the haze of the kitsune illusion. Still no sign of pursuit. Still no sign of Sakura either. He really hated this.

Fucking Kyuubi.

More than a mile away and he could still feel Kyuubi's chakra prickling his skin.

He didn't want to go any farther; it seemed a really stupid mistake not to have even a rough idea of Kyuubi's location. He stalked up to the girl, sidestepped the tip of her sword, and pushed the blood-slick fox in her arms.

She stiffened, forced to juggle the katana and the animal. The fox smothered a little pained grunt. Sasuke took a step back out of her personal space before she decided to just dump the beast on the ground and run him through.

"That's far enough," Sasuke said.

He took them in. One exhausted and rather slow-moving medic-nin, one half-dead guy, two summons -- one of them arthritic, with a crushed front paw, and the other one, the horse-sized wolf, still trembling on the edge of white-eyed panic. It wouldn't be hard for him to punch the girl unconscious and force their tokens out of them. And then, of course, the healer would have to juggle two KOed teammates as Kyuubi no Youko hunted them down, which made helping them get away in the first place rather pointless.

He was tempted to just turn around and leave. Negotiating would take time he could use to get back to Sakura and check on the situation.

He wished he hadn't let it bother him, when she asked what he'd do if Naruto were the one standing with him on the battlefield instead. He knew she was a ninja and he had to trust her to handle some of their collective shit at least _sometimes_, but he still wished he'd stayed.

Of course then Kyuubi would have just trapped him under another tree with admonitions to get some rest already because an exhausted Sasuke couldn't entertain that furry asshole enough, and the Grass team would be dead and Sakura would have ended up alone in front of him anyway. Sasuke tugged a leaf out of his hair, freeing a clump of dirt. He could probably afford to waste a little time extorting compensation out of them. Wasn't like he could do much back there, apart from getting beaten up again.

They kept staring at him, the girl and the giant, waiting for his demands. Exhausted and beaten and hating every single second of it.

Sasuke's upper lip curled and he turned on his heel to leave.

"Wait," the healer said.

The young man was a little pale, now that Sasuke looked closer. Especially around the lips, bloodless and pinched. No doubt he'd wasted a lot of chakra on his companion. He wasn't really that old, actually -- just large and big-boned. Sixteen maybe, though at first glance you'd have given him at least twenty.

"We won't go far alone."

"Not my problem," Sasuke countered. "You attacked us first, count yourself lucky I even bothered getting you that far."

The healer shifted his teammate's weight on his back; brown-skinned fingers clenched weakly on his shirt as the injured teenager woke halfway. The healer glanced down at those hands, squared his shoulders in resolve.

"I don't suppose you want to escort us? I'll pay you." He tapped the zippered pouch at his waist.

The girl jerked in surprise, and she put the fox down on the mossy ground a little fast, in a hurry to free her arms. "_Maneki, _stop right here. We will not be indebted to him."

"We're already indebted to him, Zenko."

She didn't like that, he could tell, her almond eyes narrowed to black slits. Sasuke was ready to say 'You're not going to get any more indebted than that, because I'm leaving.' But then again...

The healer acknowledged a debt. Did he feel it was big enough to owe Sasuke a way to fix that mess? That would be worth wasting a few more minutes, if he could only copy it with the Sharingan.

"Teach me how to end that jutsu and we'll be even."

The guy -- Maneki -- hesitated, and sighed. "Oh, hell. Why not. I was going to tell your teammate anyway."

He shifted his unconscious teammate's weight to the side so he could free a hand to shake on, the corner of his lip quirked up in a rueful, tired half-smile.

--

**Now**:

At his side the draft-horse-sized wolf stumbled. Sasuke's hand shot out and snatched Green-hair's wrist before the half-unconscious Grass ninja could slide boneless off his ride.

Fingers clenching weakly into dark fur, Green-hair refused to meet his eyes, to acknowledge his help. It worked for Sasuke; he did the same, turned his attention back outward, away from the exhausted wolf and its charge, away from the other two, the girl and the giant. He wasn't any happier about being here than the Grass team was.

Traveling face down on his mount wasn't very good for Green-hair, pressed along the wolf's spine, arms and legs dangling on each side with only their weight to keep him balanced up there. If he lost consciousness again the fur might smother him, and Sasuke didn't know what state his ribs were in -- he just knew the guy's shirt was one big red ruin in the front.

No one else could carry him. Only Sasuke was still unburdened, and Sasuke wouldn't hinder himself again.

Where the fuck were the jounin-sensei? There should have been some around, if only for security purposes if not for handing out those tokens. Were they all converging on Kyuubi's location? That had to be it... Because Sasuke hadn't seen or felt even a hint that one of them had been anywhere close since early this morning, and that was just wrong.

He circled the group again, went on point, fell back. Looked at them, just a glance, before going back on high alert.

The old fox sat crouched on the wolf's rump, his injured paw tucked in, and sometimes pushed his weight on one of his master's legs to keep him balanced. The girl Zenko trudged along, slender body bent almost double under the healer's weight. Her face looked chiseled in marble.

The wolf was close to just saying 'fuck it' and bolting, popping back into whatever other space or dimension it came from. Except that its summoner -- its pack leader -- still walked. So it stayed. For now.

Green-hair watched Zenko, too, the side of his face pressed on her wolf's flank. He wasn't saying anything. No one had said a thing since the ambush.

Sasuke rubbed his forearm. Flakes of crusting blood fell from razor-sharp, parallel slices that matched his shredded arm-warmer. He had tried to hold onto the cat. He shouldn't have...

--

**Then**:

... "This is Yume," Maneki said, crouched on the floor with his hand still on the summoning circle.

She was tiger-striped and sleek, with green eyes, and the tip of her lashing tail was just barely forked. She looked up at Sasuke with that indifference that was the mark of cats everywhere, goblin-cat or not.

"I can't teach the jutsu to you -- your control isn't fine enough. But Yume knows what your medic needs to know."

The nekomata leaped to Sasuke's chest, where he caught and held her only out of an old, forgotten habit. He hadn't handled a cat in so long. He felt vaguely annoyed -- reluctantly amused -- at the assumption that of course he would wrap an arm under her for her to sit on... or perhaps she didn't care whether he did or not, because she had her claws in his shirt to make sure gravity didn't pull her back down regardless.

"So? What are you waiting for?"

Sasuke snorted at the cat-summon's acidic tone, and turned around to leave without giving the Grass team a last look. He started jogging down the slope, the cat's upper body draped lazily on his shoulder.

Naruto. Sakura. He wasn't sure how he would immobilize Kyuubi long enough for Sakura to do her thing, but they'd figure something out.

Sasuke had just planned to get the Grass summoner team out of Kyuubi's immediate range, where the big healer and the girl with the katana could evacuate their own teammate. Now that it was done, the rest was their problem. He had teammates of his own to go back to.

He didn't have time to go far. Yume suddenly bristled herself to three times her size and clawed her way out of his hold, yowling. He fought to hold her back, but she was fast and too small and sleek to hold onto.

Fuck. Why the hell had he ever imagined Maneki had honor? The rest of his team didn't, and now here was his summon, escaping to get out of their deal. He gritted his teeth; he would bet they had enough time to hide again and thought Sasuke wouldn't find them, or maybe that he was in too much of a hurry to bother looking too hard.

They'd miscalculated. Sakura was safe enough for now -- anyone who got within a half-mile of her wouldn't survive Kyuubi long enough to cause her any trouble. And Sasuke hated being made a fool of.

He gave chase to the animal, keeping hot on her tail, refusing to let her lose him as she went through bushes he couldn't cross. He kept track of every movement, jumped over rocks and bounced up slopes after the madly racing cat. And then he was back where he'd left the Grass team.

He should have known the dust would attract other teams. It was like a signal flare. He should have known.

--

**Now**:

... "He's dead, Zen."

Sasuke stared ahead, like he hadn't heard Green-hair's scratchy voice. For a moment -- ten seconds, thirty -- Zenko did the same, her narrow face fixed into a surprisingly mild expression.

"I can tell," she said.

She kept going, bent almost double, Maneki's limp body draped over her back with his legs dragging in the dust.

It would have been easier to switch, his bulk on the wolf, Green-hair on her, but Sasuke had heard the crisp order she gave the beast, if they were ambushed once again -- to run away and get Kon -- Green-hair -- out of there.

And she would stay behind to fight. With the corpse.

Sasuke drifted away on the far side of the wolf's flank, put its body between him and the two teammates so he couldn't see their faces.

"He's _dead weight_."

Zenko kept staring right ahead, and taking one step and one step and another step. "He is."

Sasuke saw Green-hair's fingers clench in the wolf's fur until the knuckles paled.

"Hey, Leaf bastard," he called, voice almost like a growl. Sasuke had heard Kyuubi growl, of course, and it didn't compare, but it was a good attempt. A lot more raw, too. Pain and powerlessness, anger thrown at Sasuke's face like a shield. He was intimate with such methods.

"What is it?"

"Come here."

Sasuke went. He got there in time to catch him as the boy slipped off the wolf; he had to take most of his weight as Kon's legs wobbled. For a second the Grass ninja almost fainted.

The wolf stopped, whined quietly. Zenko took another ten step before she slowed and stopped in turn.

It should have looked kind of ridiculous, really; Zenko was only slightly bigger than Sakura, with narrow hips and long slender legs. Maneki had at least a foot and sixty pounds on her. It looked like any second she would fold under his bulk and be crushed.

Like their dragging escape from the pack of Rock-nins had proved, the body was slowing them down. Extremely so. Sasuke hadn't been about to say anything, not just yet. It wasn't his place.

"Get me there."

Sasuke pulled one of Green-hair's arms around his neck, wrapped one of his around the wounded ninja's waist, and half-carried him to her.

The two teammates stared at each other. Sasuke tried not to imagine being in their place and failed.

No, never again. Naruto dead, limp on the ground. Sakura. Kakashi. He refused. God, he wanted away from there already. He'd rather have to deal with Kyuubi.

He couldn't leave them yet.

"You shouldn't be standing." Zenko still looked studiously, determinedly blank.

The boy at his side snarled, golden eyes burning with sudden rage. "Fuck you. You shouldn't be hauling around a useless bag of meat."

Sasuke kept his face as expressionless as possible as Zenko stiffened all over, pretended he was deaf and not all that interested in lip-reading beside.

"I do not care what your kind does," she said after a few seconds, in a very quiet, very chilly voice. "I will not abandon a comrade."

Green-hair swayed a little against Sasuke's side; Sasuke got the feeling it wasn't entirely pretend. His stare stayed predatory, though a twist of his lips hinted at nausea, or dizziness, or both. "_I'm_ your comrade too. You're abandoning _me_."

Kon shook his head, as if to get rid of cobwebs, let his eyes go unfocused and this time Sasuke was almost sure he had let his control go on purpose, so Zenko would feel guilty.

"I need you. He doesn't."

She shook her head, angry but silent.

"Want me dead too? Hell, maybe I'll be easier to carry when you can afford to drag me over the rocks."

"_Shut up_!"

The wolf flattened its ears back and crouched low on the ground, but its mistress didn't even look that way.

She was losing her grasp on her artificial cool, breath coming faster, made-up lips curling into a snarl. "Shut up, just shut up, how can you want me to leave him--"

"It's him or me!" Kon yelled. "His _corpse_ or me, because that's not him, that's not Maneki, Maneki is _dead_, okay?"

He paused to regain his breath; she didn't interrupt him, though she looked furious enough to deck him if she hadn't had her arms full keeping the body from falling to the ground.

"And what do you want _me_ to do? I can't do jack shit but depend on you."

Sasuke snorted quietly. Nice to know his attempts to mimic furniture were working. Zenko's eyes immediately zeroed in on him. It was acknowledgement enough for Sasuke to feel he could join in on the conversation. "I don't care what you two decide, but it better be sorted out soon. We can't stand in the open all evening."

Zenko's eyelids twitched at the reminder, like she wanted to scan their surroundings. Sasuke hadn't seen her do much of that since they'd left the ambush site; it was probably a good sign that she would start paying attention again.

She closed her eyes for a second, and then it was the marble face again, all smooth and empty. But her voice didn't match, trembling with something not quite like rage. "Very well. Let's find a place to bury him."

"That'll take a while," Sasuke said neutrally. She stared at him in disbelief that he'd dared remind them he was more than a ninja-shaped pack mule. "I suggest we find a hollow and block it with branches and rocks. It will be easier to recover him later."

The old fox shook himself and climbed up on his three paws. "This sounds like quite a good idea to me. We'll look. Goro-kun, come along, please."

He limped away, the wolf following hesitantly. Zenko still looked on the verge of exploding at him, for daring to suggest anything. He understood. Anything would look like an acceptable target at this point. He ignored her as he sat Kon on the ground, the boy's back to a little tree.

"I'll be right back."

He went to look, too, though he didn't drift very far, just in case. The animals had a better chance of finding something, but Zenko and Kon needed their privacy, and Sasuke needed to give them some. Get himself some.

What a fucking mess.

He couldn't leave just yet. Not without handing them over to someone else.

He didn't even _like_ them. They'd been antagonistic from the start, and if he hadn't known the two of them had much more important shit to think about, Sasuke would have never let Kon put an arm around his neck, even injured as the guy was. Just wait a little bit for the fox summoner to pull himself together and Sasuke would have to watch his back once again.

He still couldn't bring himself to just walk away. It wasn't a sense of guilt, not really. If he had been there all along, if he hadn't left to go back to Sakura, Maneki would probably be alive -- so what? What next? Should he feel guilty every time some not-so-bad guy he'd never met got himself offed on some random mission he'd never heard of, that Sasuke might perhaps have stopped single-handedly? He'd done more than he had owed those three, had saved them from the one risk that was his to handle -- Kyuubi.

Death happened, especially to shinobi. It wasn't guilt. More like... responsibility.

A fox bark called him back. They'd found a crevasse close by, hidden by bushes, just about the right size.

Zenko closed her teammate's eyes. She didn't linger; just stared at his face for a second and then methodically went through his pockets and belt pouch. Soldier pills, explosive tags, a couple of pieces of candy -- his token, that silly little disk of copper he'd been killed for.

She stared at it, too, and then closed her fist around it and slanted Sasuke a hostile, teeth-gritted look.

"Leaf. Come here."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed a little. He went, slowly, to remind her he didn't have to.

Zenko pulled a scroll out of Maneki's pouch and shoved it in his hands, and then she stuffed the token in her own belt. Sasuke stared down at the scroll, an eyebrow arched.

"Your payment. For bodyguard duties."

When Sasuke unrolled the first inches of paper to have a look inside, he saw a paw print in black ink and a summoning seal. Farther down were a list of names. His breath caught for a second.

"Are you _serious_?"

Who the hell just handed off that kind of thing to an enemy, no matter the reason? She hated him on principle! For that matter, so did Kon. The only one who didn't want to eat his face was the old fox, and even then he would still dutifully go through with it if his summoner asked him to.

"What else do you want? A kunai? A roll of bandages?"

Sasuke slanted a meaningful look at her belt pouch. Zenko sneered.

"You didn't beat him. You don't get to have his token."

Sasuke shook his head, gave Kon a look, but the fox-summoner's face looked blank; he wasn't going to argue against the trade.

"...I don't want that cat scroll. I don't want anything. I didn't do it for you." He'd done it because he couldn't look Naruto in the eye anymore if he didn't. That was it. No other reason.

Zenko's hand fell to the hilt of her katana; behind her, the big wolf bared his fangs in threat. "Listen," she said quietly, with forced slowness. "It _really _hurts my pride when a goddamn Konoha bastard does me that kind of _charity_. So take the fucking scroll because I don't want to owe you a thing."

"So instead of a cheap token you'd rather give me an expensive scroll containing an important jutsu?" Sasuke snorted, a hand clenched on the half-unrolled scroll. He just didn't get the logic. Granted -- Maneki had been killed for the token. He could understand not wanting to let it go. But how was the scroll any less meaningful?

"I need the token now. I don't need the scroll."

... Oh.

She planned to stay in the tournament. Even now. Huh.

Zenko turned her back on him with pointed disdain. "With a little luck you'll get killed before you leave the island and I'll get it back from your corpse. Now get the hell out of here."

Sasuke let out a short sigh, rewrapped the scroll, stuffed it in his pocket, and went. Behind him he could see the girl rolling her teammate's huge body in the hole, and the old fox limping closer, dragging branches to pull over him; then he went over a ridge and lost sight of them.

The scratches Yume had left as she struggled out of his hold looked a little inflamed already. Sasuke pulled his arm-warmer around until the red lines were hidden and tried not to remember the cat's incredulous, wounded scream as she disappeared into smoke.

He'd figure out what to do with the scroll afterwards. He wasn't sure what use would a housecat be to him... Maybe one of Naruto or Sakura's friends would want it.

**

* * *

****(Naruto)**

He remembered being on the edge of victory. Protecting those who were his, and _winning_, wild and free. And then a touch -- just one, fleeting -- and nothingness. Entombed in his own body.

He woke furious and it felt good. Made him feel strong, unstoppable. Ready to rewrite the world so it would never dismiss him again.

Never make him powerless him again, never get between him and those who belonged to him. And there was this enemy _/prey/_ just right there and getting in the middle and distracting him. It had no business being there. Trying to get in his way. Contesting his claim on his /_bitch_/ mate.

Not the same enemy who had dared to trap him, but in his way anyway, and that was enemy enough.

He grabbed the weapon that would have struck him, and struck back. It was so laughably easy, making him feel insulted -- had that attack been supposed to hurt him?

Never ignore me again. Never make me powerless again. Never get between me and mine again.

Blood and tears on his prey's face, realizing defeat. It just made him angrier. Should have noticed earlier.

He cocked back his claws.

-- Soft baby face. Round cheeks. Baby scent still.

Konohamaru was looking back at him, horror and betrayal already bleeding out of his face.

He was hurting one of his. Why was he hurting one of his?

/_Betrayal_/ he thought, almost like a question but no, that wasn't right, that wasn't why he'd been so angry. Not betrayal, it hadn't been, so why was he

god

not Konohamaru at all underneath him, sprawled on the ground, not Konohamaru but a child all the same, huge baby eyes and baby face and blind unconscious trust, because they'd had fun together and adversaries didn't mean enemies at all, and surely Naruto wouldn't -- Naruto wouldn't.

He was the one who'd betrayed first.

He threw himself off the child he'd been straddling, redhead little boy he'd impaled on his own spear a second ago. Gagged on the reek of blood and guts.

He wanted to kill things, he was so angry but Konohamaru was not a thing, Konohamaru was his little-buddy student almost-cub (and Naruto had betrayed him first.)

He crawled back on hands and heels. Sat. Breathed. Konohamaru wasn't here on the island. He was back home. He was safe.

Could have been Hanabi instead, though. Hey, Hinata-chan, I killed /_ate_/ your little sister. How much do you like me now?

God. They weren't here, either of them, but there was a child here right now and Naruto still remembered the way he'd torn that spear out of his hand and driven it right back through him, remembered the noise it made and the soft impact, almost like hitting a pillow.

"Naruto?" someone called. It took him a second to recognize the raw, wheezing voice.

He looked down the slope and it was almost worse than the child. There was blood all over his mate and she cradled her arm as she struggled to her knees. The blood he could have ignored, even a small drop spread a lot and wounds didn't have to be deep to paint someone all over, but he remembered the feel and taste of her flesh in his mouth and the sound of her bones cracking, like he might wake to remember someone's voice talking next to him as he slept.

He'd done that to her too.

"Naruto?"

He remembered her disrespecting him and for a second he was furious enough he started moving into a crouch, lifting his claws. She'd thought he was weak. Despite all his power she thought he was weak, inside, where it counted the most.

He _had _to prove her wrong. Being weak wasn't tolerable.

"...Are you alright?" she asked in a strangled voice.

He wasn't. God. He really wasn't. Naruto shook his head to clear it, rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes. Everything looked too sharp, too bright. Someone was sobbing in pure terror and the first thought he had wasn't '_hurt? Help?_' but /_food_/.

"I. Sakura. I..."

There was a pause, and he heard her start to walk up the slope, slowly, cautious. He could smell her acrid fear from there.

It made him sick with dark pleasure and interest, a misplaced sense of rightness.

"I've got to go," he decided. He pushed himself up, standing. It felt a little unnatural, exposing his stomach like this, making his stance less stable.

She was standing a dozen feet down and she froze when he moved, calculations running through her eyes, how far she should jump, where she should kick him to defend herself. "--wait. You can't. N-Naruto. You have to stay."

He laughed dryly. The way she said his name, it sounded like she wasn't even sure it was the right one. "What for?"

"You're my teammate! You've got to watch my back. That's why..."

He laughed again. Protect her? What a joke. He was the one who'd done that to them.

Sakura licked her lips nervously, took a hesitant step closer. "I'll worry if --"

He flinched. "If you can't see where I'm coming from?"

"That's not what I was going to say!"

Naruto turned away, rubbing his face again. He still had claws, they wouldn't leave. "... Sorry. I've got to. I'll stay close. Our camp, okay? Gotta... stuff. Get our stuff."

He kicked off the rock before Sakura could call him back.

He ran. There were thickets and boulders and things. No animals, not even mice, he'd scared them all away. He was frustrated and glad about that both. He overshot their camp, he was running so fast. Whatever. Landed in the river, didn't even bother gathering chakra to stay on the surface. Ran against the water.

It was cold. It dragged at him. Tripped him, rose up to his chest, sank him into deep holes with no warning, dragging him backward. Relentlessly flowed against him.

He found a rock emerging in the middle of the stream and draped his arms over it, letting his legs dangle in the current.

What the hell had happened. What the hell had he _done_.

What had _Kyuubi _done?

He felt so immensely stupid. Somehow, subconsciously, he'd trusted the fox wouldn't be that bad -- fierce and angry and hard to manage, but manageable in the end. Because they were learning to live together, weren't they? Naruto let him see through his eyes sometimes. Let him rise close when he was with his mates. Kyuubi was always sarcastic and disturbing, but possessive of them too and for that Naruto could accept a lot. He'd learned how to hunt, had embraced the pleasure that came from it -- it was a Kyuubi thing but Naruto could give some ground, couldn't he? Because he didn't really like being a jailer for someone's life sentence. And Kyuubi _was_ someone, not just a mass of evil chakra that spoke; he had a past, and a personality, and tastes of his own.

Naruto felt so completely stupid for trusting him, even just a little. He felt dirty, too, for the rage he'd embraced so wholeheartedly. For the wariness and fear in his Sakura-chan's eyes.

For betraying first.

* * *

**(Sasuke)**

The sun had set at some point and he hadn't noticed. While he jogged back, Sasuke realized with surprise that the whole thing -- deciding to camp by the river, getting ambushed by the summoner team, the landslide, the escape, the second ambush that had killed Maneki, his return -- it hadn't taken more than three hours tops. Probably closer to two.

It wasn't really dark yet, though.

Sakura's tunic was spotted brown with half-dry blood. That was what Sasuke noticed first, before the small redheaded body that lay sprawled in the dust, a spear protruding from its guts.

He couldn't feel Kyuubi's chakra anywhere, but then again the fox-demon could have decided he was tired of terrifying prey into fleeing and figured out how to hide that surging flow so he could lay in wait instead.

If Kyuubi was still around, he'd deal with it. Because he could see two shell-shocked children clinging to each other as they crouched beside Sasuke's teammate, staring down at the small motionless form of their third.

Shit. Just -- shit. And after he had spent so much time and energy to get the summoner team out of harm's way. He had expected that other teams might move in to check on the cause of the dust cloud, but he hadn't envisioned that result. It was surprising the other two kids weren't in pieces as well.

He kicked loose pebbles as a warning, saw three bowed heads jerk up, Sakura's hand fly to her shuriken pouch.

Her other arm was tucked tight against her belly and he could see dried blood and a bruise that went from elbow to wrist. The wrist was a little swollen as well. Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"Sasuke-kun," she said, and her voice sounded so strange he stopped in his tracks, still a dozen feet away from them. Exhausted was one word for it. Blank, only at the surface. Scratchy, the kind that comes from screaming.

The two genin looked completely shell-shocked, the white of their eyes showing too much, clinging to each other like children instead of like ninja. Too young for that mess, Sasuke thought, and ignored the fact that Team Seven had been just that age the first time around, when they ran into Orochimaru. He wasn't exactly a proper benchmark for trauma tolerance.

His first thought was to ask what had happened, but it was clear enough. There were more urgent things. "Where is he?" he asked, crouching on the other side of the body.

Sakura inhaled quickly and shook her head, as if to shake her brain awake. "He went to the campsite."

Sasuke blinked. "... Kyuubi went _where_?"

"No -- Naruto." Sakura blinked back, eyes widening in surprise and then narrowing. "He just -- woke up. I thought you'd convinced them to do something."

Sasuke broke eye contact, looked down at the small redhead pinned to the ground with its own weapon. Failure all around today. "No. We were attacked. The healer died." He raked a hand through his hair. At least Kyuubi wasn't a problem anymore. That explained why he couldn't feel him anywhere.

Shit. The kid looked even younger than Konohamaru. Naruto was going to take that so much worse than Maneki's death. Sasuke should have stayed, even if that would have meant getting beaten up --

The body was breathing.

"... Sakura?" He'd thought the ribbon tied to the spear shaft was catching some kind of faint breeze, but that wasn't it at all. "Why is he still...?"

She sneaked a quick look at the two trembling kids and replied quietly. "He's pinned. It goes all the way through into the bedrock. I can't pull hard enough to free him without putting dirt in the wound and tearing it open even wider, and I can't -- I can't heal fast enough to fix him before he hemorrhages. There's -- organs. Stuff. I never learned that." She scrubbed at her face with a dirty hand, exhausted. "Did you see any of the jounin? I can't fix this."

"I didn't."

Sasuke didn't like this at all. They were supposed to be around, even more so than at their first chuunin exam. With all the problems regarding the integration of Mist into the alliance, how wary they'd all been that Mist's history of violence would make the test all too brutal, how the higher-ups insisted on jounin-held tokens as a way to avoid leaving no option but bloody battle -- there should have been so many jounin keeping watch over the genin they should have been unable to turn around without tripping on one.

But they couldn't afford to sit and wait to be rescued. Sasuke got up, frowned at the two other kids. He stepped over the redhead's spread legs and nudged the girl with his foot, not very gently.

"Alright," he ordered briskly. "That's enough. We need cover and warmth. Go look for wood, dry grass, anything that can burn without too much smoke."

They looked up at him in dazed confusion.

He remembered fighting the two of them, the boy with the glasses and the short-haired girl. She'd spat poison at his face even as her teammate fumbled through a textbook-correct, unoriginal kawarimi. He wasn't surprised when she climbed to her feet first.

He crouched on the other side of the boy, waited until his teammates had stepped away.

"Sakura, I'm going to cut him free. Hold the shaft."

Sakura's hands clenched tight on the bottom of the spear, just over the skin. Sasuke caught a good hold a little higher, sent a tendril of lightning-chakra down his kunai, and sliced through the wood in one clean stroke.

Getting to the part of the shaft that was underneath proved much harder. In the end Sakura moved the kid's upper body on her lap and shifted it up the shaft, gritting her teeth when that tore through the weak layer of scabbing and blood flowed again. The angle was awkward as well. Sasuke cut the shaft as short as he could, and then quickly pushed his balled-up shirt around it as a cushion, so the weight of the body wouldn't push the wood back through. For a minute, Sasuke and Sakura watched the kid's gray face, waiting, but after the first hitch he started taking shallow little breaths and didn't stop again.

"Stubborn," Sasuke whispered. Maybe he would even survive. Sasuke wiped his hands on his pants and got back up. "Let's move him against that rock to get him out of the open, and then I'll go find Naruto."

They worked in silence. It was quickly done, though, the boy moved as smoothly as possible and a quick Katon to light the fire. Sasuke finished setting up traps with his leftover wire and straightened up.

Sakura was rubbing her stomach discreetly, like she didn't want him to notice.

"Sakura?"

She caught the direction of his gaze and shrugged, looking back down at the redhead kid to avoid his eyes. "It's nothing, just reverse-backlash. I had so much chakra shoved at me for so long and then it just went poof. It feels a little weird."

Sasuke stared at her for a second, not sure he was convinced. "Huh."

She laughed suddenly, dry and humorless. "It's funny. I was so afraid Naruto would become too foxlike. I wasn't scared of Kyuubi at all -- I mean, he was even helpful with the seal, and he would never hurt the mother of his offspring, right? Heh. Heheh."

Sasuke's fingers curled into a fist. He stayed silent for a few seconds, no words coming to his mind -- none that would have been welcome right now. Sakura let out a long, shaky sigh, and watched the brunette girl come back with an armful of branches. Sasuke glanced at the younger kunoichi and then back at his teammate.

"You gonna be okay?" he asked quietly, before the girl came in range.

"...Yeah. Just -- Naruto left before I could talk to him and --"

"I'll talk to him," he assured her.

He wanted to assure her of other things. That it was over now. That things would be okay, they'd just forget and go on. He'd never been an optimist, and he wasn't a hypocrite either, so he didn't.

"We'll be back soon," he added, because that he could promise, even if he had to propel Naruto along via a kick combo to his ass.

The kid's teammates were around, but busy with other things, not looking at either of them. Sasuke wasn't sure he wanted to touch anyone after this clusterfuck of failures and dead people, but he hated to see her like that. Running on automatic, unable to break down and release her emotions. Subdued. He did it all the time but it looked wrong on Sakura.

He brushed his hand against her shoulder, standing at her side. She twitched under his hand, looked up, gave him an unconvincing little smile. It didn't even feel like she was really seeing him.

It twanged in his chest when he realized this time around his mere presence wouldn't be enough to make Sakura's world right again.

The root of this was Naruto.

He let his hand fall. The sooner he brought back that idiot, the sooner his teammates could fix each other. "Alright. I'm going."

Sakura nodded absently. "Take care." Her eyes slid back to the unconscious kid.

Sasuke turned away, went back to the river, found their camp again.

Naruto wasn't there. Sasuke felt a spike of -- some feeling he didn't want to think about. He snatched up his pack, Naruto's jacket, abandoned on the bank, and kept moving. He'd come back for the rest afterward. If some other team was lying in wait -- if they'd caught Naruto by surprise... Unlikely, but he didn't have a clue what state Naruto was in.

He went up the river, because the trees and lush grass quickly disappeared once out of the canyon and Naruto would probably want to keep to familiar surroundings.

For a second as he saw the body draped limply over that rock he thought Naruto might be dead too, ambushed and left where he'd fallen. But no, that couldn't happen. Just couldn't. To prove it, he picked up a rock and threw it; it hit Naruto's perch with a loud crack.

Naruto startled. Good. Something in Sasuke's stomach unclenched. Even though Naruto should have been aware of his presence sooner.

Naruto didn't turn around to check who was there. Not good.

"Naruto." Sasuke's voice came out curt, more than weary. He didn't know whether Naruto could tell who was behind him, but that was no reason to keep his back on him that way. It was either as if Naruto wanted to ignore him or wanted to be captured, and both were unacceptable.

He hadn't felt anything much for a while, but now he was starting to feel angry.

"Get up," he ordered, voice harsh.

Naruto's shoulders stiffened.

"You left Sakura alone, exhausted, saddled with a bunch of _kids_. And you're not even getting supplies?"

"... Sasuke, leave off."

"Let me think -- _no_." Sasuke dropped his things on the bank, walked up the river's surface, and kicked water at Naruto's bare back. It didn't make a big difference to how wet Naruto was; his hair wasn't even half dry and his pants soaked through.

Naruto whirled around so fast Sasuke jumped back into a fighting crouch without thought. His teammate's eyes were Kyuubi-red still, thick fangs in his mouth, cheeks barred with spreading whisker marks.

There was rage in his eyes. Fear, too.

A challenge, in the tilt of his chin.

Sasuke gave an unimpressed snort as he forced his burst of temper down. "Get a hold of yourself, alright."

Naruto stared at him for a few seconds, balanced on the balls of his feet like he was thinking of pouncing anyway, but the dryness and lack of fear in Sasuke's voice tipped the balance. He relaxed slowly -- very slowly, still on edge.

Still... not normal. Not right.

Which meant Sasuke couldn't get angry at him either. He'd been calm and steady for Sakura; it came easy, when he was cradled in the functioning numbness that came from seeing death, from having to keep moving anyway, to salvage things. He wouldn't have minded blowing off steam on Naruto. But Naruto needed him steady as well, and that was... unsettling, unexpected, but something he couldn't mess up even so.

"Better?" he asked.

Naruto let out a long, shuddering breath and made a conscious effort to unclench his white-knuckled hands. "...Mrgh."

"Naruto." Sasuke paused, weighing his words. They didn't have time for Naruto to have a little breakdown in private. They didn't have time for comfort. Sasuke sucked at it anyway. But being too harsh would have the opposite effect. "... Tell me what's going on."

Naruto's shoulder and arm twitched and his upper lip curled briefly in disdainful irritation. He closed his eyes, still red.

"Status, shinobi," Sasuke demanded, quiet but unrelenting.

"Fuck you, leave me alone," Naruto said, but it came with a groan, more of a plea than a real insult.

Sasuke swallowed another flicker of unease. Wrong, wrong. "You know I can't do that."

Naruto slumped on the spot, sat on the rock with a bone-jarring thump, head and shoulders bowed in what looked like defeat. "Sasuke, just--"

"I'm not leaving," he countered preemptively.

Naruto sighed and started massaging his temples.

"My head hurts," he admitted quietly. "And I'm not. I don't. I..." A deep, bracing breath. "I'm not thinking right."

Sasuke bit his tongue on a 'As if you ever do.' He couldn't have faked the right level of teasing dryness right now.

"I'm so angry," Naruto whispered. "I'm so angry."

He didn't look angry right now. Closer to terrified. Sasuke told himself to relax his jaw before he broke a tooth.

"Alright," he said; it was inane but he didn't have a clue what else to say to that. He told himself to just accept it and move on. "What do you need to keep it under control?"

Naruto flicked a startled look at him through his bangs. "What?"

"The anger. If you could get rid of it, you would. So it's not possible. _Alright_. But obviously you can control it." He spread his arms a little in demonstration; Naruto hadn't attacked him after all.

"I don't -- " Bewildered, Naruto shook his head. Shuddered, fists clenching and releasing.

"What do you need?"

There was a long moment of silence.

"...No challenges. None at all."

Sasuke gave a cautious nod. "That's... going to be _interesting_, but alright."

Naruto let out a short burst of laughter and tilted up his head. His eyes were a muddy, intermediate color -- an ugly bruise-purple, still more red than blue. The pupils were thin cat-slices.

"What else?"

Naruto looked away. "... I don't think I can... stay close. So I'll just... I'll take perimeter watch. Okay?"

Sasuke considered it. Someone had to do it, and he didn't think Naruto would want to be too close to the kids and Sakura yet. Anyway, night was falling fast -- he checked the sky. No, evening was pretty much there, the sun had come down almost a hour ago. He hadn't noticed he was losing colors because even when his sharingan wasn't activated his pupils still adapted well, giving him details and movements in stark clarity. But they needed to bunk down for the night. Might as well allow Naruto to calm down by doing something useful that wouldn't let him feel crowded.

"That works. Let's go pick up our things and move the camp."

He caught a scowl on Naruto's face at his words, but the blond inhaled slowly and forced himself to relax. Too much like an order, then? Damn but this was going to get frustrating. He erased a frown from his face and waited for Naruto to move first, to give a signal. He watched the blond unfold, climb to his feet.

They stared at each other for a second, before Sasuke made himself break eye contact and look over Naruto's shoulder. He should have looked down at his feet to seem properly submissive but his every instinct rebelled against that.

"This is just wrong," he commented dryly.

"Heh. Yeah." A pause; Naruto tilted his head, faintly disconcerted. "I don't think I'm gonna like it much in the long run. I want... I want to fight you. It's not -- it's too easy if I don't have to fight you."

"But it wouldn't help if we fought now," Sasuke observed. Naruto let out a strange laugh.

"No. It really wouldn't. I'd eat your face, and then I'd probably rape you. I wish to god I was joking."

"Missing a face might get problematic," Sasuke replied blandly, refusing to be impressed. It was obvious Naruto was hoping he'd be scared off and give him space. As if. "On the other hand, girls would stop sighing after me in the street."

Naruto muttered under his breath, more normal-grumpy than half out of his skin with nerves for a short moment. "Ass."

"Yeah, I guess I'd still have that going for me."

He startled Naruto into laughing, a real laugh this time around.

"Yeah... I guess it _is _pretty nice," he agreed, almost normal. But he kept chuckling longer than he should have, breathless and slightly tinged with hysteria. "I guess it is. ... But if you try to use it on other people I'll -- I... I'd be pissed."

Kyuubi was still too close to Naruto's mind, Sasuke noted. He'd planned to say something else. More graphic. With more threats. Sasuke nodded soberly. "I wasn't planning on it," he promised, voice quiet. "I've got a boyfriend already."

He smirked a little bit when Naruto's head jerked around at the epithet.

"He's the possessive type, apparently," he said dryly.

They stared at each other for a few seconds. Sasuke only broke eye contact when Naruto's slightly too wide, slightly too wet eyes started to narrow into a bothered stare. There, no more challenge.

"... Damn straight he is." Naruto stepped up to him slowly and bumped his fist against his shoulder in a pretend-punch that wouldn't have moved a civilian in high heels. Sasuke was neither. At this point it was almost closer to a caress.

This was getting embarrassingly sappy. But playing on Naruto's gentler side was the only way Sasuke really saw to counter the way his wilder feelings echoed off Kyuubi's.

This was probably as good as Naruto's mindset was going to get for a good long while, with his chakra still out of whack.

"We should go back to the camp," he said, sticking his hands in his pockets and gazing at the scenery around them so he wouldn't have to really acknowledge Naruto's expression again. It was too embarrassing to see him with no mask on.

"Alright, alright."

They started walking down the river, Sasuke scanning the surroundings for threats, though he kept his body language relaxed and his hands tucked away. Naruto slunk along like a predator vaguely thinking about maybe going for dinner. That was much better than him actively looking around for prey; Sasuke still made a note to look for snacks to shove at him.

He tried to think of an innocuous topic of conversation to keep Naruto distracted, but could find nothing. The only things he was wondering about were Sakura and the half-dead kid and he wasn't going to bring them up.

"Man, I'm so ready to get the fuck off this island," Naruto grumbled, kicking at the surface of the water. "I hate this place."

Sasuke grunted his agreement. "Still need more tokens though. I'm not coming back in six months."

Naruto flinched and looked away. Sasuke berated himself. Yeah, bring up tokens and more teams to kill for them while you're at it. Stupid.

"... Weren't the jounin-sensei supposed to carry some around?" Naruto said after a slightly too long pause.

Sasuke was willing to ignore that in the name of keeping the conversation looking casual. He stepped on the bank. Their camp wasn't too far from there, just after this bend in the river.

"Yeah, but I haven't seen one of them for hours." He couldn't keep his irritation out of his voice. "What the hell is up with that anyway? They should have come running."

"Oh, they'll be around soon enough," said an amused voice, "but we do have a few minutes."

Sasuke froze in his tracks. At his side Naruto had gone stiff with shock. He could feel demon chakra spike against his skin.

A tall, broad-shouldered man stood in the middle of their abandoned camp.

He had a huge sword effortlessly propped up on one shoulder. On the other shoulder was slung a limp body.

That wasn't what Sasuke zeroed in on first, though. It was dark and colors were hard to see, but he knew his skin was slate blue and the clouds on his cloak arterial red.

They came as a pair. It was all Sasuke could think of. They came as a pair.

Itachi.

"Gaara," Naruto choked out.

"It's shameful how little security the hidden villages keep around their demon bearers nowadays, wouldn't you say?"

Kisame took a step forward, distracting Sasuke from the suddenly suspiciously empty space all around them.

"I don't suppose you'll come quietly," he said, and smiled, all teeth bared.


	20. TW3 chapter 8

Thanks to Fateofshadows, Foxfire, acts-of-tekla, Trishalynn, Lady Aquill, and Muryx for the help with beta-type things. u.u Every other problem left is entirely my fault and if you find more stuff in real need of correction or clarification, I'll be glad to hear it.

* * *

**Chapter 8**

_Gaara. _

_H__e's mine you have no right, let him go, why isn't he moving. Red head lolling, arms limp. Dead -- no he can't be no no no._

_Blue man smirking, predator challenge__ like he's saying look at my see-saw teeth I could eat him, I _will_ eat him and you can't stop me._

_Hate. Kill._

* * *

One moment she was sitting with her back to the small campfire, listening to two thirteen-year-olds whispering to each other, and rubbing her bare arms discreetly to ward off the creeping cold.

The next second, a tendril of liquid fire was making its way through her inner coils.

Sakura lost a second to surprise and dread. It might have simply been Naruto drawing close, bringing his chakra closer -- but it didn't feel that way. Stiffening, she prayed for the brunette girl and the boy with glasses not to notice a thing, as she wrestled that spark of demon chakra to her arms, away from her belly. Her nails had stayed long and pointed -- they would until she could trim them, she couldn't make them go away like Naruto did -- but now she could feel the tips curving into vicious hooks where they pressed against her forearms.

She was in the middle of converting it to more normal chakra, chakra she could allow to radiate through her body, when another surge hit her.

Not just Naruto coming closer -- the rise would have been smoother. He was drawing on Kyuubi's chakra again. Had the fox-demon taken over again? She bit her lip. She needed to go and check -- what if he was fighting Sasuke? Kyuubi would be angry enough to do real damage. But the kids...

... weren't whispering to each other anymore. Head whipping around, she expected to find them staring at her, having noticed... she didn't know. _Something_. She found them slumped against each other, eyes closed. Asleep.

_'They must be very tired'_, she thought, a little sad, tired too; and then she saw the pinched look on the little redhead's face slowly smooth out into deeper, peaceful sleep, and she understood.

Genjutsu.

"KAI!" Sakura jumped on her feet, eyes wide open, hands locked in a dispelling seal.

He was standing right there in the open, still and patient as if he'd been there for the past ten minutes or even ten hours and would still be here in another ten. She spared a thought to be horrified that maybe he had been there that long, and she hadn't noticed.

Black cloak, red clouds.

That achingly familiar face.

They weren't identical. Sasuke's face wasn't quite as long, a little more triangular than it was oval. Sasuke's hair was thicker, wilder. His eyes had never been that cold, that... remote. Empty.

It was a strange thing to notice, but the thought came anyway -- even devoid of any care, any humanity, Itachi's eyes were more beautiful than Sasuke's.

And this was just about the stupidest mistake she could have made. Either he didn't want to lock her into a genjutsu, or she was already inside it and hadn't noticed. She grabbed those tendrils of demon fire blindly, not even trying to control them, and pulled for all she was worth. She needed more, she didn't have enough. She needed the unbridled chaos of it to shake loose any genjutsu he might have laid onto her.

"Ah." He inclined his head, thoughtful. "We had wondered where the echo came from."

The chakra. The demon chakra.

She was using something Akatsuki wanted for themselves. She felt the blood drain from her face.

This was a nightmare. Alone against Uchiha Itachi, who had killed so many. A whole clan. _(he'd killed her baby's grandparents.) _A whole clan with the same abilities as Sasuke's.

A whole family. _(her parents dead on the ground, Yukihiro the wise and Hana the mama bear -- oh, so that was how it felt.)_

_What_ could she do? Run? He'd get her from behind. Attack? She couldn't even hold her own against his little brother. He'd see through any genjutsu she could put up to cover her movements. If she called for Sasuke he'd fight and lose _(he'd get killed)_. But without support she wasn't going to survive. Fuck, fuck, _fuck_.

She couldn't make a plan, she couldn't _think_. It burned in her belly, in her head. What could she do? Nothing would work, nothing --

The demon chakra stopped welling up for a heart-stopping second.

Something was happening to Naruto.

_(he was going to kill __Naruto too.)_

Red chakra rushed back, exploded through her coils again. Sakura grabbed it and pulled out more, already running. Snarling.

She was so angry.

Angry and afraid and grieving. She needed him dead to make sure none of it would happen again. Not to her own.

Uchiha Itachi watched her come at him, unmoving. She hated his frozen face, empty eyes, not like Sasuke at all.

He threw a handful of kunai to stop her momentum. She lashed out without thought. Claws of demon fire slashed through metal _(it hurt it hurt oh god her hand)_, scythed out, flying at him so fast. He dodged; the bottom edge of his cloak didn't, shredded to tatters. Her sight was shifting into weird vivid colors once again. So angry; she'd never hated anyone as much, never to the point of wanting them _dead_ -- but now she did.

_I get it now, Sasuke._

She slashed another set of fire claws his way, crouched low to the ground, watched him dodge. The attack was fast, better than any she had on her own. It burned up her coils and her hand was already blistering, but she'd care about that later.

She wanted to just pounce, wanted to tackle him to the ground and then tear into him -- knees, elbows, claws, headbutts and her teeth, all the same, a flurry of pummeling hits. She held herself back somehow, balanced on the knife's edge of rage and determination. But she wanted, wanted, _wanted _--

But she needed to get him in the air where he couldn't dodge.

She threw herself forward to avoid another handful of kunai, landed in a roll, leg extended, scything through the air.

Her heel hit the ground and released every drop of chakra she'd gathered there, shattering bedrock and throwing a huge cloud of eye-stinging dust in the air. She was yanking more chakra through the pipeline before she was even back in a proper crouch.

Slash, three arcs of liquid fire. Throwing herself forward in their wake.

She raced past the claws as they hit Itachi's body, and she kept running away, as fast as she could, hurtling herself from boulder to piled-up rubble to felled tree. When she heard the familiar noise of a clone exploding behind her, she wasn't even surprised. Of course he'd send a clone, of course she hadn't hit him, she'd been _right_ not to let the rage take her and pounce. She clenched her teeth on a scream of frustration, even though she was sure he didn't need noise to pinpoint her.

There was nothing else to do but run away -- dodge at random and wait for him to get her from behind. At least he had no reason to double back and go for the three kids; unconscious as they were, they were no threat to him. They were safe. But for her it was different, and any second now he would -- any second --

"Sakura, DOWN!"

As she threw herself face down on the ground, she couldn't help the total bafflement that came from realizing Sasuke had been warning her away from something huge and blue -- not something brother-shaped at all.

Where was Itachi?

* * *

Sakura's arms were covered in ugly red blisters, cracked skin seeping blood. Even making a fist must have been painful. There was no time to coddle her; Sasuke grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her on her feet, pivoting to stand at her back before she was even done getting her footing.

Naruto howled out in rage and went flying at the Akatsuki again. Sasuke already knew how the attack would go -- a swipe of that huge, toothed sword, Naruto falling as his chakra ran out with the part of his body that had been hit like shredded meat, then another red-gold explosion and another crazy charge before flesh was even done sizzling closed.

It made Sasuke feel sick, no matter how fast he healed.

He'd been watching for an opening to get Gaara away from Kisame, which would leave Naruto free to go all-out, but Kisame... He was good, Sasuke reluctantly acknowledged. No opening to be found yet. Even wielding his sword one-handed against Naruto, the man was still smirking, almost indulgent, amused.

"Report," he gritted out.

Even without looking her way, he could feel Sakura bracing herself.

"Uchiha Itachi is here," she said, abrupt.

Ah.

... He'd known that. He _had_. The second he saw Hoshigaki Kisame he had known his brother would be there as well.

Hearing the words, though --

"We need to get Gaara back," Sakura said.

Sasuke shook his head. We? Gaara? He laughed, a dry little laugh that wasn't amused at all. Like they could worry about saving Gaara -- they had to save themselves first.

Itachi was here.

"Three to one and a hostage," she said, fast, clipped. "I don't know what he's doing but he'll come soon and we need to be four against two -- Sasuke-kun, _focus_!"

A harsh elbow in his ribs made him stiffen, more out of outrage than pain. He hissed between his clenched teeth, scanned the area Sakura had come hurtling from once again. His sharingan saw nothing, of course, not even the telltale off-colored blur of a genjutsu.

Naruto hurtled past again; Sakura took in a shuddering breath. The stifled pain in her voice -- Sasuke shook his head.

Sakura. Naruto.

His brother.

"It's a trap, we can't afford not to pay attention to--"

"We can't afford to just stay put and wait, we're not going to see it coming either way!"

... Shit. She was right. He hated it, but she was right. When Itachi -- when he showed up, Sasuke would attack, but in the meantime -- from the corner of his eye he watched Naruto fall again, belly like mincemeat. Kisame chuckled derisively.

His brother.

His teammates.

Snarling out his frustration, Sasuke turned on his heel, pulled out his last length of wire from his pocket, unspooled an arms' length of braided steel with his teeth..

"He uses water. Sword steals chakra. Can't close in or use jutsu."

He threaded the wire through a shuriken.

"Break the ground," he ordered. "Charge."

Sending Sakura in arm's reach -- he hated it. Her taijutsu just plain wasn't --

_'Pretend I'm Naruto.'_

With the way Kisame moved, he needed the sharingan to aim and that was it.

Pale with fatigue, she didn't say a word, didn't question him. Started to run. The chakra on her fist was demon-orange and unstable, lashing her with little licks of fire. Sasuke snarled. Even gluing his eyes to Kisame's every movement couldn't stop his sharingan seeing it.

Now Naruto was slowing down, blind rage dimmed for a kind of calculating predatory awareness -- feinting, low to the ground, right-left-pounce. The kind of testing feint a dog would do, the kind Kisame didn't buy for a minute.

Kept his attention just long enough that he was barely starting to glance over his shoulder when Sakura's fist hit the ground. Sasuke was already in the air, seeing the way the ground would break before it did, seeing the way Kisame would stumble -- just barely, before he righted himself.

He dodged the kunai Sasuke had sent flying with some fancy footwork, letting it thunk harmlessly in the ground.

When he landed his ankle brushed against the wire.

Sasuke let the Chidori flow down braided metal.

"Now!" he screamed, already charging after his teammates. Kisame had fallen on a knee, the hand he'd left on Gaara's back all along grabbing blindly for the sword. Sakura darted in from the back, claws snagging Gaara's collar and pulling.

The limp body was still in the middle of slipping off his shoulder when Kisame whirled on the spot, sword slashing with his momentum parallel to the ground, coming like a meteor at Sakura's middle.

Sasuke was too far.

Naruto wasn't. He landed on Kisame's back like a ton of bricks, all claws out, howling. Sasuke darted in, snatched Sakura's collar and yanked her and the unconscious body she was holding backward. He grabbed one of Gaara's arms and they both ran toward a nearby rock they could use as cover.

Gaara's arm felt weird under his hand, damp and grainy. Sasuke left it to Sakura to figure out; he dumped the unconscious ninja at the foot of the rock and turned to put his back to it. It wouldn't stop attacks from above or the front, but that was still something, one side he didn't need to watch.

His brother was still nowhere to be seen. The attack hadn't taken very long, fifteen seconds maybe -- but even then ...

Naruto and Kisame were still fighting -- more of a brawl than anything else; Naruto was under his guard now and clearly intended to stay there, slashing and doing his best to clamp his jaws on anything with accessible veins. Kisame punched hard, though; Sasuke watched Naruto's head snap to the side, and then a kick caught him under the ribs, sending him flying back in their direction. He rolled on the ground before landing back in a crouch, snarling. Sasuke didn't think he'd stopped at any point.

Someone was coughing behind him; wet, raw sounds, like he'd drowned at some point. Sasuke glanced back briefly, watched Sakura help Gaara sit.

"Can you fight?" he asked, over Sakura's "are you alright".

"Drained..." Gaara wiped damp sand off his arm, expression blank, not quite awake yet. "Can't move it wet. Too heavy."

Sasuke briefly considered scorching the sand armor dry. At this range the heat would probably do Gaara in.

"I'm going," he said, and took a couple steps away from their shelter. Sakura needed to rest and fix Gaara enough so he'd be useful, and he needed to help Naruto get rid of this guy before Itachi got bored and decided to intervene.

Itachi would probably intervene if his partner was about to get killed, actually.

It worked for Sasuke.

Behind him the ground trembled as Sakura punched rocks into dust for Gaara to use. He kept walking, until he was standing with Naruto.

"Hey, dumbass. You need to wake up now."

Naruto's long snarl was briefly interrupted by an irritated snort. Sasuke's lips twitched.

Heh. Maybe it would even work.

Beside him, Naruto raked his claws on the ground, eyes narrowed as he watched for an opening. Sasuke nodded faintly. If Naruto was aware of his actions then they could fight together, and together they weren't going to be so easily held off. Kisame seemed aware of it; he was bringing his sword in a blocking position, smug smirk replaced by a vaguely put-upon expression. His cloak was scorched and he was bleeding from quite a few bite and claw marks, though none of them looked deep enough to be debilitating.

Sasuke nodded slowly. An idea was taking form. "If you get him to let go of the sword..."

"Kisame," said a low, almost-soft voice at his back.

A block of ice had replaced Sasuke's entrails. He didn't remember turning, but there he was, facing the rock.

Sakura was leaning on one knee, green-gloved hands on Gaara's back, Gaara's head hanging low with exhaustion as he gathered sand to him, tendril after thin tendril.

On top of the rock his brother stood, gazing at the battlefield. Their eyes met.

Sasuke couldn't breathe through the rage and the --

Rage. Just rage, just hate, and outrage, how dare he show his face -- how dare he!

"We're running out of time," his brother said dispassionately, eyes gliding away from his as if he weren't worth stopping for, as if he'd been weighed and found not worth the bother. Sasuke's hands started shaking.

Not again, he wasn't going to be dismissed again, never again.

"We'll have to make do with only one tailed beast today."

Ignoring Kisame's halfhearted grumbling protest and Naruto's snarled "Like fuck!", Itachi tilted his head, looked down at Gaara. Sakura jerked into movement, snatched the redhead's arm and threw herself backward. She stumbled, landed on her ass, still dragging Gaara along, and he wanted to yell at her to let him go, damn it, just run out of range but there were too many other words already in his throat and none of them were addressed to her.

Gaara did it for her, sweeping her aside with his arm, and for that a small part of Sasuke thought he would try to keep him alive, if he could, but he knew he wasn't going to be able to spare the attention.

"Yes, yes," said Kisame behind him, even as rocks shifted under his feet. "We can't allow the girl to keep taking chakra from the tailed beast either."

He sounded... patient, a little amused as he gave his own reminder.

Sakura was still sitting where Gaara had knocked her aside, pale with blood and chakra loss, pink hair in disarray, head tilted up to stare at Itachi.

"That is true," Itachi said quietly, and dived for her, katana first.

There was no thought. (_fathermotherauntieSAKURA_)

It didn't even hurt when the sword dug into his back. It was just cold. He twisted to the side. If it was deep enough (he couldn't tell) he might manage to tear it out of Itachi's hand, counterattack.

He failed. The blade went out. Blood trailed warm tracks down his side. He shifted higher up Sakura's body, so his upper chest would catch headshots, so if his brother went for Sasuke's heart then Sakura's belly would--

"The child," Itachi said behind him -- slow, like a revelation.

Sasuke couldn't breathe.

"The rumors were wrong. It isn't Naruto-kun's. It's yours."

Under him Sakura was struggling to push him off. She wasn't going to manage, he was never going to move, he was going to die here, he wasn't going to move.

"Let go, let go," she was saying in between two dry sobs. He couldn't see her face.

He waited for another strike but instead, "Sasuke," said his brother's voice, and then the ground exploded.

No more ground under them. Reflex -- he tried to twist, to control their fall.

It was like being stabbed again. Except this time around it hurt. Things went dark for... a second, maybe two. No more, right? He couldn't afford more. He clawed his way back to consciousness, but the ground -- on the ground again? Hadn't felt the impact. Not a bad thing.

Ground was moving. Bad thing.

Sakura was trying to squirm free. No.

"No," he said. His voice was weak. Strange.

"Stop moving, Uchiha," snapped a strained voice. He didn't recognize it right away.

Wasn't his brother. Wasn't Naruto. Wasn't Kisame. Didn't leave much choice.

"Sasuke-kun, we're safe, let go. We're safe."

He didn't believe her, but he was on his side and that wasn't going to protect her. He rolled -- oh fuck, his back, it was bleeding. Sakura screeched something under him but he didn't listen until he was shielding her again, and then there was a man's hand on the back of his neck to hold him in place. He opened his eyes on reflex, ready to fight. Try to.

He could see the ground over Sakura's shoulder, but it was very far down.

"...Why is there a valley there?" he asked. He was sure they'd been nowhere near close to one.

Wasn't really a valley. Just... a hollow shaped like a half-sphere, perfectly smooth, like the inside of a big bowl. Maybe fifty steps across. It had chewed up a corner of the riverbed, and little rivulets were making their way down. Soon there would be a perfectly circular pond.

Neither Sakura nor Gaara had to answer, because then Naruto did it again.

It was huge, the biggest Rasengan Naruto had ever made by far. It was red, and it didn't swirl so much like a ball twirled on a fingertip as like the eye of a storm. It hit the ground between Itachi and Kisame and the shockwave made whatever Sasuke and the other two rested on wobble. Gaara winced, tugging on their clothes to bring them closer.

Sasuke saw the edge of his sand platform fraying under the effort, and went without protesting, until he was pressed against the redhead's legs. He shoved Sakura straight onto his lap, because Gaara would be the last thing Gaara's sand allowed to fall, wasn't it?

The Akatsuki pair had dodged, again, but the shockwave had caught them too, flinging them backward. Itachi flipped in midair, landed on the first, growing pond. Kisame --

Held his sword in front of his face, and even if he was thrown back as well, the shockwave lost strength toward him and then he was charging again, well before Naruto had managed to reload.

Sasuke tried to jump, but Sakura was the one who wouldn't let him go now, and when he struggled Gaara's sand wrapped around his arms and pulled him back down. They were all yelling at each other but he couldn't even hear himself, he was deaf from the explosion. Naruto would be deaf to his warnings too.

When he looked down again Naruto was kneeling at the bottom of the second bowl, Kisame standing right behind him, the edge of Kisame's sword pressed under his chin.

No.

No, stupid bastard, run, Sasuke would give them Gaara instead if they wanted a demon bearer -- he'd give them Gaara instead and then he'd beat up Naruto for allowing this, for letting himself be taken to keep them safe, he'd -- no, no, no.

Dust swirled amongst the massive clouds the Kyuubi-powered Rasengan had lifted. Itachi, Sasuke thought with despair.

Instead three dogs burst out, maws wide open.

Sasuke stopped moving, watched, vaguely aware his mouth was open, as the dogs went low, snapping at Kisame's ankles. And then stone burst open behind the man as he stumbled, someone surging out and stabbing straight for his unprotected back with lightning in his hand.

Kisame stumbled forward, tripped by Naruto's kneeling body, did an odd little jump to catch himself into a crouch. Naruto slumped to the ground like a felled tree.

Kakashi charged again, his dogs with him in perfect synch. Water rose from the river to blast them away.

Another man burst out of the dust, and then a second and a third on his heels, and none of them was wearing black and red.

Sasuke's view was blurring. He squinted. Wasn't safe yet. He had to watch, know what was going on down there. He closed his eyes for barely one second and when he opened them again Kisame was bleeding from another three wounds on top of Kakashi's shoulder hit.

He saw his brother look up at the three of them for a fraction of second as he swept through the group and caught his stumbling teammate, but before Sasuke could make sense of that look, Itachi had exploded into crows and disappeared along with his partner.

Sakura's hand was gripping his wrist so hard Sasuke couldn't feel it anymore.

He watched jounin and ANBU of a half-dozen villages gather around the twin bowls as they scanned the area with a sense of complete surreality. Kakashi's dogs were sniffing around, and even from up there he could tell they were grumpy from losing the track. It couldn't be over, could it? It was never over, not with his brother.

He was so exhausted he didn't realize right away he wasn't simply passing out when the world swayed under him; and then they were falling from the sky.

He thought absently that it was really kind of high, especially with a big hole in the ground right underneath. Stupid Naruto.

"Oof. You're a bony little fuck, aren't you."

Some woman he didn't know had caught him in mid-air. The way they'd landed, Sasuke's elbow was digging in her ribs. Whatever. Wasn't his brother or Kisame. Wasn't his teammates. He didn't give a damn.

"Medic!"

"They _all_ need a medic! What's yours got?"

Someone tapped his shoulder. Sasuke cracked an eye open to glare at the jounin, who snorted in amusement. She didn't top Morino Ibiki from Konoha's Interrogation Division about facial scars, but she seemed to be gearing up to the attempt. Sasuke halfheartedly considered giving her another one if she didn't let him rest.

Too much effort. "Stab wound. Back."

Someone else was leaning over him, with an Earth Country ANBU mask and green-glowing hands. The green seeped down into him, cooling the pain until he could barely feel it. "Uh huh. What else?"

He considered it. "... Dunno. Tired." He was sure he'd feel it later. Wasn't like Sakura's burned hands or Naruto's -- whatever he'd done to himself. That idiot.

"Yeah, that stab wound is really neat, I should have it closed in no time." It was? He'd moved around. He'd expected worse. "You should just try to sleep in the meantiHEY."

The ANBU medic grabbed his shoulder to push him back down on his side. Sasuke slapped his hand away and scanned the area. Kakashi -- ahh. Standing over Naruto. Naruto was moving -- slowly, but moving. Sakura...

She was close by. She'd apparently fallen closer to Gaara than he had, because the same person had to catch them both and now they were barely an arm's length apart. Someone was fixing her hands, clucking something about the bones. Sasuke rolled on hands and knees, grunting a little when his wound gave a little spurt of fresh blood. Sakura was the closest so that was where he went.

"... Hey."

His throat felt raw. He must have been screaming. He didn't really remember hearing himself.

For a few very long seconds Sakura stared at him, through him. She tugged a hand free from the medic and for a moment Sasuke was sure she was going to slap him.

Her hand caught his shirt instead and tugged. He went, crawling a step closer, two, and then sitting next to her.

"What the hell were you thinking," she whispered, staring ahead into nothing. Sasuke stared that way too, because why not. "He could have killed you. I don't understand how he didn't kill you."

"Mmh," said Sasuke, because there was nothing else to say.

Naruto was stumbling his way to them, punch-drunk, snarling at everyone who tried to get in the middle. He slumped on his knees in front of them, demon-red eyes traveling from Sasuke's face to Sakura's to Gaara's.

He only had two hands, so he grabbed Sasuke and Gaara's unconscious body and did his best to pull everyone into his lap. Or maybe crawl on theirs. It was hard to tell. Sasuke briefly passed out when Naruto's hand pressed too close to his wound; when he opened his eyes again he was slumped on Naruto's shoulder, so he didn't bother to move.

Sakura was curled up right next to him, bent over Gaara's upper body on Naruto's lap so she could tuck her head under Naruto's chin. Looked uncomfortable. Naruto was murmuring something in Sasuke's hair, he wasn't sure what.

"Kids?"

Sasuke grunted halfheartedly in answer to Kakashi's voice. He opened an eye to look over Naruto's shoulder, and Kakashi was there, sitting in a crouch and looking all... cautious. Subdued.

"You're going to have to stop the human ball attempt if you want to be healed."

Naruto growled, a sound more animal than human. No need to clarify that, so Sasuke closed his eyes again. He could feel Sakura move against his side, reluctant. Naruto didn't want to let her go.

"Look at my hands, Naruto. I need the healer, okay? ... Sasuke and Gaara probably do as well."

Sasuke snorted, eyes still closed. Just a little stab wound. He didn't need anything.

Someone moved closer. "Your teammate is right. The Kazekage--"

"I'll kill you," Naruto rasped out. Movement stopped.

Sasuke opened his eyes, met Sakura's. Sighed. Sakura's hands were a burned ruin, so he lifted his own to poke Naruto's chest for her.

"Shut up, stupid."

"They've got to evacuate us," Sakura said. "They can't if -- you have to let go. Okay?"

Stubborn, Naruto didn't move.

"Naruto, it really hurts," she whispered, almost like she was ashamed of her weakness. Naruto made a whimpery sound like a kicked puppy and his arm fell from her shoulder.

Sakura unfolded slowly, staring at his face. Naruto stared back. Sasuke watched them, half-conscious and trying to think of nothing.

He didn't want to think of anything, because otherwise he'd start thinking about his brother and how once again he wasn't worth killing.

How he'd been so weak, how little he had grown, that the only way he was useful was as a meat shield. How he'd been pulled to safety while Naruto fought for them. How Itachi...

"Sasuke?" Kakashi's quiet voice called. "Open your eyes for the medic, Sasuke. Any spinal trauma?"

A muscle in his jaw twitched. "No. ... No trauma."

"Alright. Naruto, help me put him down on the stretcher, and then you can go to your own stretcher."

A growl.

"This is not open for discussion, Naruto."

Another growl, more like a grumble, and hands tilted him down onto rough cloth.

"The kids," Sakura said suddenly. "The kids. That way. Three kids. One of them was..."

Her voice faltered.

"Hurt," she finished, voice quiet. "Impaled. Pretty bad."

Sasuke felt blindly for Naruto with his hand. He wasn't in arm's range anymore, so Sasuke kicked out.

"-- Ow."

"Lie down on your fucking stretcher. Sakura too. If _I_ have to..."

Fuck but he just wanted to sleep. He could feel it coming, inescapable darkness, gently, stubbornly pulling him down.

... He was forgetting something. What was he forgetting?

Oh, that he never wanted to see this fucking island in his life ever again.

"Wait," he said, and grabbed for Kakashi's jacket. Kakashi allowed it, watching him with an eyebrow arched, and allowed Sasuke to nudge him back a second later as well. "Okay... Hey, scar-face."

The woman who'd caught him in midair was still nearby. She snorted, came and leaned over him. "Yep?"

Sasuke squinted up. "Jounin-sensei?"

"Yeah?"

He reached out -- his hand weighed a ton.

"...Lemme guess," she said, staring at the hand on her breast. "You want me to put you out of your misery."

Sasuke snorted. Like he could aim, with his eyesight fuzzy as shit and the blood loss. He let his hand slide down the green jacket. It was so thick he bet she hadn't felt anything anyway.

His hand fell back on his own chest. The eighth and ninth tokens gleamed copper-bright between his fingers.

There, _now _they had enough of the bastards that the whole thing wouldn't be a complete waste. " 'Kay. Now get us out."

He passed out before he could tell whether or not they'd obeyed.

--

END OF CHAPTER

* * *

**I am so sorry for ruining the serious mood. SO sorry. (except, you know, not really. This fic's been emo for WAY too long now. :p Things will look up soon!) ****Omakes****:**

"The child," Itachi said behind him -- slowly, like a revelation. "The rumors were wrong. It isn't Naruto-kun's. It's yours."

Sasuke froze.

"I admit I'm surprised," said Itachi. "I had the notion you were gay."

"...OH, FUCK YOU, MASCARA MAN."

--

Sasuke: ITACHI! :O  
Itachi: Foolish little brother, you are still pitifully weak even at this age -- what? you shacked up with two people? D: OMG YOU HAVE TO TELL ME EVERYTHING.  
Sasuke: DX _what is wrong with youuu._  
Itachi: You know, I don't think dad would have approved. ./_\.  
Sasuke: BUT WE WILL NEVER KNOW. YOU KNOW, SINCE YOU KILLED HIM.  
Itachi: You always pull that card to change the conversation. ::sigh:: Tell me, at least, are you happy?  
Sasuke: Less by the minute. DX


	21. TW3 chpt 9 Aftermath

I swear this is the last emo chapter. DX

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 9****: Aftermath  
****(****Naruto)**

None of them would hand him a mirror, and strangely enough the one in the bathroom attached to his and Sasuke's hospital room had recently had a little accident; but he had slept all night and most of the next day, and by next evening, with darkness as a backdrop, the windowpane reflected enough for his purposes.

The seal was faded out again. He was alone in his mind. (He'd made sure. Triple-sure.) He hadn't been using chakra today. He wasn't angry. (Just exhausted.)

His eyes were blue again - their normal shade as far as he could tell, not that he could be sure without a real mirror.

His pupils stayed cat-slices.

Wordlessly, Sasuke stalked his way around Naruto's bed, closed the blinds with a loud snap. Naruto looked down at his hands instead.

At least Sasuke didn't... well. There was a reason Naruto had waited until Sakura left the room before he dragged himself to the edge of his bed to check. Every time she met his eyes, she ... twitched. Sasuke at least didn't seem to notice. Or care, either or.

Sasuke was limping, his back mended but still stiff; all muscle and ligament tears were healed, though the scar tissue was still frail, but they hadn't bothered with the soreness and bruises. Likely Sasuke hadn't asked. 'A real ninja needs to know how to function through discomfort and pain', or something.

"We can turn off the ceiling light," Sasuke said. His voice was completely neutral. That was strange.

Naruto realized he'd been rubbing his eyes again and dropped his hand. He swung his legs back on his mattress, pushed himself up to press his back to the headboard. "I'm fine. It doesn't hurt."

It didn't. Just felt a little tight for a couple of seconds when lights switched on or off, which was pretty normal. The doctor had said his eyes were working fine.

He hadn't said anything about how likely the pupils were to go back to their normal shape. Whatever. Naruto wasn't blind, so it didn't matter.

Naruto was a murderer.

Naruto was a murderer who couldn't even manage to murder the right person, the evil one. He killed children.

He stared down at his hands again. Got the nail clipper. He'd already trimmed them earlier - the claws had retracted, but his nails had still been a bit too pointy.

They still were. Clip, clip. Ow. Bit too short there; it stung. He kept going on to the other nails, painstakingly.

"You've got debriefing in twenty-five minutes," Sasuke said, not really looking at him.

Naruto grunted an acknowledgement. It was something they both knew.

Seemed like Sasuke wanted him to talk. Naruto didn't want to. He'd kind of assumed Sasuke didn't want to talk either; he hadn't said a word since Naruto woke up, probably longer than that.

Itachi. Of course. Naruto remembered the man being there, and he should have reacted more because he hated Itachi on principle, but none of his reasons why were as immediate as Gaara's limp body thrown over a big blue shoulder all casually.

Naruto wanted... he didn't know. To ask Sasuke if he was okay. (Sasuke wasn't.) Ask what had happened (while Naruto was busy going crazy, trying to cancel his innocent-murder with an evil-person-murder, as if two wrongs had ever made a right), ask if there was anything Naruto could do, maybe. (Sasuke would say no, and then Naruto would sit on him and make him... and say... and say...)

Naruto was a murderer of children.

"Fucking stop it with that nail clipper!"

Naruto blinked as Sasuke backhanded it out of his hand. He was standing by Naruto's bed now, looming. Naruto wasn't sure where the anger was coming from.

Sasuke probably expected a 'what did you do that for' but it was pretty obvious why. Naruto looked away. "I don't want to fight."

"I don't give a _shit_ what you want! You're getting on my nerves."

He felt a twinge of - anger? Offense? It reminded him a little of forbidding Sasuke to challenge him because if Sasuke tried, Naruto would hurt him for real. No play-fighting, no equal grounds. Just 'how dare you, bitch.' He squeezed his eyes closed and turned his head away, stuffing the feeling down.

There was silence for a little while, Sasuke's stare heavy.

"Just - be normal already. I-"

He turned his back then, shoulders just a little hunched. Naruto could almost hear the words he'd wanted to say. _'I __**need**__ you to be normal.'_

"...Sorry." He rubbed his eyes again. They burned. The light maybe. Yeah.

Shit.

"Sorry."

"Shut up," Sasuke replied, back still turned. Now he sounded exhausted.

Naruto made a little noise of acknowledgement, because Sasuke didn't really want him to shut up, there were just things he didn't want to hear.

Just seemed like anything he could have said fell into that category, so never mind.

"Man, you look like somebody just died!"

Naruto's head jerked up. There was a guy in the doorway, sitting in a wheelchair. Dark skin, moss-green hair. Naruto stared at him for a couple of seconds before he remembered where he knew him from. Right - one of the members of the Grass Country summoner team. The guy was grinning wide, staring straight at Naruto with his weird yellow eyes.

He didn't have fangs, but it still felt like his grin was full of them. Naruto couldn't even pretend it was a friendly expression if he tried.

"Kon. What the hell are you doing here?" Sasuke asked, puzzled, kind of wary.

"Oh, I was just wheeling by. Lots of time to do that now, between visits. What with, you know, only having one teammate left to visit me anyway."

Rage thrummed under each flippant word. It took Naruto a moment to really understand the meaning.

"... One of your teammates...?"

"The other guy didn't make it," Sasuke said, tone clipped. Naruto stared at his profile, but Sasuke refused to turn and look at him. If he knew that, why hadn't he told Naruto so?

... Then again, when? Naruto hadn't really had a discussion with anyone since the moment he awoke, apart from the doctor coming to check on him.

So the big guy was dead. The one who'd brushed against him mid-battle, and Naruto had woken up to Sakura's blood in his mouth and a kid pinned to the ground like a butterfly. "Ah. I'm sorry," he said dutifully, by rote. He didn't know what to feel. It... kind of sucked? But if the guy hadn't done that to Naruto in the first place then nothing would have -

"You killed him, you know."

Naruto stared at him blankly. His "I...What?" was drowned by Sasuke's "What the _fuck_? No he didn't."

"He kind of did, too."

Sasuke moved closer to the wheelchair, eyes narrow and jaw clenched. "Are you sure you should be out of your room? You're confused. Take any drugs today?"

"Not at all." The green-haired boy grinned again, though it was all in the teeth, nothing in the eyes. He looked at Naruto again. "No, see, you aimed for me."

He tugged open his shirt. His whole chest was encased in bandages, but the edges of raw, ugly scars stretched up to his collarbone and down over his hip, and that was a pretty clear preview of what else was hidden under there, how deep it must have gone.

"Tried to kill me - slash, show me your guts. Damn near succeeded. Maneki drained himself to save me, and then he didn't have enough juice left to save himself."

Naruto realized he could remember it, with that face in front of him and those words in his ear. Blood, exposed ribs shining ivory in the middle of flayed flesh. So fun, and just what the stupid monkey deserved, for daring to attempt to bind him. Bile rose in his throat.

"He was unlucky," Sasuke retorted in a clipped tone. "That can happen to anyone."

Kon's golden eyes flashed, his handsome face going ugly with raw hate. "Not to Maneki it can't."

Suddenly Sasuke's back was blocking Naruto's whole field of vision. "You attacked us first," he said. "None of you can bitch about the consequences."

Kon moved his wheelchair inside the room and to the side so he could meet Naruto's eyes again, and let out a short, barking laugh. "Yeah? Ask me if I give a fuck."

"Your teammate died on you because we were_ ambushed _while we were _out of chakra, injured and outnumbered_. Why don't you go after the guys who ambushed us when we were escaping - the ones who _actually killed him_?"

"We shouldn't have lost to them, we shouldn't have been running away in the first place! And now _Maneki is dead_," he snarled to Naruto, not even bothering to acknowledge Sasuke anymore. "He was mine and he's dead. Trying to protect us from a monster. I'm not going to let that go."

Sasuke's hands landed on the arms of the wheelchair with jarring force, and he jerked it around to force the boy to face him.

"You think going after Naruto for revenge will change anything? You think - what, that he'll be _less dead_ then?"

... Sounded almost like he was trying to warn Kon that revenge wouldn't bring him anything good. It was almost funny how ironic that was, coming out of Sasuke's mouth. Naruto chuckled, he couldn't help it.

"You're laughing, you fucking monster," said Kon in disbelief, and his voice came out mingled with hate and something that was almost like admiration.

"You're really messed up, you know," Naruto said, before he could hold the words back. He should have explained he hadn't been laughing at Kon's pain or his desire for revenge, but it had slipped out before the automatic 'sorry'.

"Funny, I never used to be messed up before my teammate died on me."

His teammate. The brief moment of off-beat, twisted amusement died right there. What would it be like to lose one of his teammates? He couldn't get angry at that guy for lashing out, he couldn't say either 'I didn't do it' or 'I'm sorry'.

It was okay if that guy accused him of murder. One more, one less...

"If you start anything now," Sasuke said, "you'll drag your last teammate into it as well. You okay with getting her killed too?"

Kon chuckled again, though the sneer on his lips made it come out weird. "Careful now, that sounds almost like you're threatening her or something."

"You go for my teammate and I'll go for yours," Sasuke hissed back, all uncaring concealment gone. Fine tremors were running up his arms, tendons jutting out, fingers clenched white-knuckled.

Naruto swallowed. It hurt to hear the anger bare in Sasuke's voice for all to notice. Something that shouldn't have been shown, something that he wouldn't have shown if Itachi wasn't... wasn't so close and making everything so blown-open and raw. Any other time Sasuke would have shown an enemy nothing but that smooth mask of cold contempt, and Naruto hated it.

He snatched Sasuke's sleeve. Opened his mouth, to tell him to stand back, to stop shielding Naruto when he was hurting too. It was okay. He didn't care if Kon threw insults and threats at his face. He should have cared but he couldn't even really feel it, it was too much.

"Yeah, that's not something that will ever happen," Kon said, before he could speak. He was looking at Sasuke now, and he was smiling, satisfied. Playful. Cruel. A Kyuubi-face. "Lie about it as much as you want, but you? You're _honorable_." He said it like an insult, a fatal flaw. "Cold blood? You couldn't."

"Maybe he couldn't," Sakura said in something that was almost a conversational tone. She stopped in the doorway, feet set apart solid and ready. "But _I _could. And I wouldn't come from the front."

Sakura's left arm was in a cast. They'd had to break and set it again. The cast didn't make her total absence of expression and the coldness of her eyes less convincing.

It made Naruto sick to see her like that. It was all wrong. She was supposed to rage and huff for silly things and then go right back to laughing, and to be a bit smug and to tease, and - and to just be _Sakura-chan_. She wasn't supposed to act cold-blooded.

"You gave your message. Now leave."

She stepped back to free the way. Kon gave her a long weighing look, and then snorted. "Whatever, I'm done here." He slowly went, pushing himself back in the corridor. Sakura stepped in the room with her face still frozen, and closed the door with carefully controlled precision.

Naruto wished she would have slammed it.

He leaned back against the headboard, gazing down as Sasuke turned on his heel and stalked to the window. The blinds were still down; Naruto didn't know what he was looking at. He didn't say anything about it. He didn't want to look at anyone else either.

The thing was, he couldn't even manage to mind that Kon considered him a murderer. After what Naruto had allowed to be done to that kid, that was only what he deserved.

Sakura put down a package she'd been carrying in the crook of her cast on the table, spent a few seconds fussing with it. "Ino left food for us at the nurse station."

"Ino?" Sasuke asked reluctantly. "I didn't know she was around."

Sakura shrugged, like she hadn't known either, like she didn't really care. Her face was still disturbingly blank. Naruto's eyes slid away.

Sakura had been called out earlier to pick up the care package, but that wasn't the reason she had gone at all; she'd have asked Kakashi to get it if that was all. But now Naruto couldn't make himself ask. The fact that she hadn't told him what she'd found out on her own, straight away... It said everything.

"I don't get it," he commented. "Sasuke tried to save them, but..."

Sasuke snorted quietly, arms crossed, face still turned toward the blank window. "Yeah. They'll never forgive me for that."

The conversation died again. He'd hoped Sakura would pick it up and go with it, but she kept fiddling with the little boxes inside Ino's package, lining them up by length and then by width or some other criteria he didn't get.

"He's still in the critical ward," she said, staring down at the boxes. "Status unchanged. That's all I could find out."

Status unchanged meant still dying, just apparently taking his time about it.

Naruto wanted to think it meant the little redhead was going to beat the odds and survive, but the doctor's face when he asked how likely that was...

He hadn't asked again after that.

"...Thanks, Sakura-chan."

Kakashi was going to be there any minute to escort him to the debriefing, so he slipped off his bed and went to splash some water on his face.

* * *

The medic-nin had tried to chase Sasuke out of the room at first, but Sakura shrugged and said she didn't mind, so Sasuke spent a half-hour watching an old guy lift his teammate's shirt and feel up her stomach and belly. At some point he even pressed a palm down her shorts, against her pubis.

The guy was from Konoha, cleared by Tsunade, so he had some idea of the state of Sakura's health, the whole situation. About the fetus.

The baby.

_'The rumors were wrong. It isn't Naruto-kun's. It's yours.'_

He knew why his brother believed it. Because he assumed Sasuke had reason to believe it, from the way he'd thrown himself on Sakura to shield her.

Sasuke didn't believe. He didn't have enough luck to dare.

He just... hoped.

But hope was too nice a word, too soft. Yearning, maybe. Craving. It was the kind of wanting that hurt.

He shook his head, closed his eyes for a few long seconds, opened them to stare at Sakura so his mind wouldn't drift again. She was getting dressed with quick, short gestures, jaw twitching every time the cast on her arm got in her way. Her eyes were still flat, still walled off.

_'Charge'_, he'd told her, and she'd attacked Kisame, outclassed as she was.

"So?" she said, not looking at the old medic-nin.

The man was frowning, looking at his chart. Not a deep frown, but not an optimal expression either. Sasuke fisted his hands deep in his pockets.

"The fetus is alive and healthy enough for now, but there is no telling whether it was altered and how." A short, irritated sigh. "Just the sort of problems we were trying to prevent in the first place... At any rate, whatever happened, it's too late to fix it. Just mind you don't make it worse. No more of that chakra. You can control the input until the seal is fixed, right?"

She gave a terse nod, rolling the waistband of her shorts back up one-handed. Sasuke stepped up to her and tugged her tangled t-shirt down, so it would cover her hip under the cracked arm where she couldn't reach easy.

(Sakura could stop herself from taking in more Kyuubi chakra, as long as Naruto didn't use any around her - he'd flood her no matter what she tried - but somehow Sasuke didn't think that was going to be a problem.)

"The bone?" she asked.

"It's not good for your calcium levels if I speed it up any more. Double your daily supplements and come back in a week."

"Alright." A nod. A perfunctory "Thank you." She turned to leave. Sasuke followed.

Down the corridor, and to the staircase. This floor had been blocked for the second test's casualties, preventing anyone but teammates and teachers to come in, but nothing stopped them from leaving. Naruto would be in debriefing for another forty-five minutes at the very least.

She went. Kakashi was with Naruto, so he followed. Out in the street, and up the hill, and up that cliff path they'd raced down, back from the first test, a few centuries ago. White and purple flowers dancing in the wind, spilling all over the rocks, the sea unfurling blue-green as far as the eye could see.

He could see rage in every line of her body, the set of her shoulders, how straight and proud her spine was. He'd never seen it from the outside, but it was familiar anyway.

She stopped at a little bend in the path, the jutting rocks hiding them from view. She turned to face the sea.

Picked up a loose rock, and hurled it as far as it would go. Sasuke didn't track its fall. She was already bending down to pick up another.

He stood on the path and watched her throw rock after rock. At some point she started to grunt with the effort, a quiet little noise with each throw that grew progressively louder; after that, it was her lip, curling up from a pressed-down line into a snarl.

"_Shit_."

Throw. She was a little unbalanced by the cast, movements too wide and not efficient enough, but it wasn't like she was bothering to aim anyway.

She was so angry. He had nothing against that fact, didn't begrudge her it; it was just strange, that rage, the depth of it.

Sasuke wasn't angry. He'd tried to be, at Naruto for being so listless, at Sakura for leaving them alone together, at Kakashi because he was there and then because he wasn't, at Kon.

He wasn't angry. He wished he was.

It would have been easier to handle than the nameless thing churning in his guts, the terrifying thing he'd been trying to ignore ever since the jounin-sensei arrived on the battlefield and carried them back out.

Sakura's anger took up all the space, and he couldn't hold onto his own anymore. Couldn't fan it huge and roaring until he could pretend anger was the only thing he felt, until he was deaf to the things it covered up.

"Did you see him?" asked Sakura. She stared at the horizon. Her face was still hard, but there was a pinched, brittle look at the corner of her eyes which told him that she didn't want to cry, that she might anyway.

She meant Naruto, of course, and of course Sasuke had seen him, and it made him sick with frustration and denial, he couldn't stand it. Naruto wasn't allowed to be broken.

"He'll be better when he has things to do," he said, parroting Kakashi and not believing it any more now that he was the one saying it. "He's had nothing to do but brood. He needs to move around."

Sakura didn't even look like she was paying attention. It was a little strange not to have her hanging on his every word.

"If I'd been stronger," she said.

He fell silent. He knew where this one went.

"If I'd been faster - known more jutsu..."

She lifted her chin, eyes glittering with rage and tears.

"If I wasn't so weak, wasn't a _toy_, wasn't someone you can _ignore_!"

She was screaming now, until her voice went raw.

"I will never freeze up again. I will never be too slow or weak again._ I will never be ignored again! _Never, never, NEVER!"

Sasuke watched her, and... He didn't know. He didn't know what he felt there. Something soft, that ached a little. He stepped closer, shoulder to shoulder. Standing with her. He thought he could do that from now on. He thought it would be fine by him.

She trembled with a swallowed sob, chin still up, eyes glittering with more than anger now. He was the one who touched her first, his hand on her back. She turned in his arms and burrowed there. He held on.

He could understand that feeling, that need to make oneself into someone who could never be dismissed.

He caught the word emerging, floating there, in a corner of his mind. _'My wife.'_ He weighed the word, the notion.

Alright. Yes.

Despite the still-unnamed thing curling in the pit of his stomach he didn't think he had ever thought so clearly. He tilted his head, rested his cheek against her hair as she fought not to cry, as a few hot tears slipped through anyway. He could see hardy little flowers, and torn rocks, and the sea.

The thing was, when he stopped lying, stopped hiding...

He already knew how it would all untangle, once he grabbed the end of the string and started following it. When he'd faced his brother, when Itachi had moved to destroy the pipeline - to kill Sakura - he'd already chosen. He'd chosen again when he thought he wouldn't mind if Naruto hated him forever for trading him for Gaara. It was just a matter of allowing it all to unravel, now, to make himself push away the last of the fear and admit it.

He already knew.

His brother. His revenge. His family, waiting, betrayed and ended, waiting for him to even the score, to make sure their murderer didn't get away with it. All that he owed his parents.

All that he owed his brother.

His... maybe-child. Maybe Naruto's child.

His wife. His future children - the ones that might come after this first one. The ones he'd have with her, and the one they'd have with Naruto, and.

Their future children.

He closed his eyes, turned his face into Sakura's neck.

His brother.

_'__You and I will always be brothers. I will always be there for you, even if only as an obstacle for you to overcome.'_

_'__Even if you hate me. That's what big brothers are for.'_

"We will always be brothers..."

"-Sasuke-kun?"

She pulled back a little bit, blinked at him with eyes reddened but stubbornly not crying. His whisper had been too quiet; she hadn't caught the words. Sasuke shook his head slowly, unwound his arms until only their fingers were touching.

"Come on. Something I've got to tell the two of you."

He led her down the path, fingers interlaced with hers in a white-knuckled tangle.

* * *

On the way to Naruto's hospital room they saw the kunoichi, the one who summoned wolves, and Sakura thought, _'she's faster than me but she'll be expecting posturing and glaring first,'_ and started calculating angles to box her in. She could see it unfolding in her head, keep walking like she didn't care and at the last second when they passed each other she would slip her hand free from Sasuke's and lash out, just one strike. She could break boulders. A ribcage should be fine.

Zenko didn't say a thing, barely looked at them, just one quick glance and then nothing. They crossed paths and kept going, ignoring each other.

Sakura still wanted to double back and strike. From the front, from behind - whatever.

Kon blamed Naruto for his teammate, but she blamed them for Naruto, and when it came down to it she didn't _care_ about how unfair that blaming game was, how unbalanced the losses were, it was sad and it sucked that Maneki had died and she would kill them if they came near Naruto again, if they tried to make it one inch worse for him.

She couldn't stand - Naruto, broken, she couldn't stand that.

Sasuke's fingers were clenched tight in between hers. She wondered if he could tell what she'd just planned - if maybe he'd been about to hold her back. The flash of resentment surprised her a little bit, and then on second thought didn't.

She was furious at the world for hurting Naruto, but underneath that she was also furious at Sasuke. When she let herself, she could still feel his body shuddering on hers as a blade stabbed through.

But she couldn't be angry at Sasuke for protecting (the baby) her, so she was trying to push it out of her mind. Otherwise she would punch him in the face and yell_, 'what were you _thinking_, how could you do that to me'_. She knew she'd have nightmares where he died right on top of her, trapping her powerless, suffocating her under the weight of his corpse.

Sasuke's hand in hers, not letting go. It would have made her giddy just two days ago.

She loved Sasuke same as always - she wouldn't have gone half-crazy with hate for Itachi and fear for him if she didn't - but now he was injury-free and if there hadn't been Naruto to worry about she wouldn't have wanted to see his face very much right at the moment.

She gave his hand a last squeeze and slipped her fingers free. They were coming up to their bedroom, and she could see Kakashi-sensei in the corridor, leaning against the wall that faced the door. A Konoha ANBU with short dark hair and a dog-like mask stood beside him, discussing she didn't know what. She'd be curious about it later, now all she cared about was that Kakashi wouldn't have been here if the debriefing wasn't over.

"He's inside?" Sasuke asked. He glanced at her. "I'll be along in a minute."

She nodded an acknowledgement and pushed the door open, a little puzzled. Whatever it was Sasuke wanted to tell them, maybe he wanted to tell Kakashi first...

She forgot in the next second. Naruto was sitting on the edge of his bed, staring down at a change of clothes he'd probably been in the middle of packing. On second look it wasn't really a change of clothes, because he'd been shirtless during the whole battle; it was just underwear, a thigh holster, and freshly washed, knee-torn pants. She could still see scorch marks and faint bloodstains here and there.

She didn't know what to say to him. She knew what she wanted to say, but '_I'll kill anyone who puts that look on your face'_ would be the opposite of helpful, especially with how much she meant it right now.

"Hey, Sakura-chan."

He met her eyes, gave her a tired half-smile, and just like that, her anger flagged.

"Hey," she replied quietly.

She walked around the bed, took the pants from him. "I don't think they can still be rescued, you know. Did you empty the pockets?" She draped them over her cast and checked quickly, feeling through the cloth. Nothing to fish out. And there was the wastebasket.

Now the bed had a free spot for her to sit on.

"You okay?"

She stared at him, and laughed a little, and it hurt in her throat. Why was he the one asking her that? How silly was it?

"... Sakura-chan?"

"I'm fine. How -" It was hard to ask that directly. Maybe because Naruto didn't like worrying her, or looking weak, and he didn't react well to her showing she had noticed. "How are you?"

He dredged up a smile. She could tell he was about to wave off her concern and try to pretend he was just fine, and she couldn't keep her expression from shifting to offended. Naruto stared at her for a second longer and broke eye contact, the smile turning even more awkward.

"Eh. Been better. ... Sorry."

She attempted to smile back. "Sorry for what, you big dummy?"

Naruto gave a self-deprecating shrug. "Making you worry."

"I'd rather be worried than lied to."

She froze with the words barely out of her mouth. She hadn't meant to _say _that, hadn't meant to snap it almost, and now he stared at her with shocked blue eyes, and the wrong fox-pupils didn't divert from the hurt in them.

"No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just... Naruto, I _notice _when you're not alright. Okay? And - and I always want to help, but I can't help if you won't let me." Quietly, she added, "And that hurts a bit."

"Aw, shit." Naruto rubbed a hand over his face, his eyes.

Sakura bit her lip and looked down at her hands, tangled together on her lap. Like Naruto didn't feel bad enough, she had to bring that up.

"To be fair, Sakura, you do the same thing," Sasuke said as he pushed the door closed behind him.

Startled, she jumped, stared at him. She hadn't noticed him come in.

"I guess we don't talk much," Sasuke concluded in a quiet, thoughtful voice.

Sakura didn't expect Naruto to snort out a laugh, though it wasn't a happy one, more like ironic.

"S' funny coming from you. You don't talk at all."

"I don't smile and pretend it's all peachy either."

Naruto paused. "Yeah, that you _really _don't."

It didn't have much of the bite it should have had; it didn't end in a long tirade on how Sasuke was always pissy even when he was fine, and if they had to pretend, it was better to pretend to be happy than pretend to hate the world because he was scared a smile would split his face in two. Still, Sakura felt the grip over her guts unclench slightly. He'd tried to banter. He was getting better. (Or better at putting up a front. But it was good that he was starting to care enough to try to hide. Wasn't it?)

The half-smile on Naruto's face fell as he looked back at Sakura. She tried not to flinch as she noticed his pupils again.

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan. It's not like - I just - I hate it when you're worried, and if you _can't_ do anything then I don't want to bring it up anyway. I'd rather you were happy."

She stared at him for a second, and then she extended her arm, bumped her fist against his chin like a very slow-motion sucker punch. She wanted to be angry at him. At any other time she might have been, because he just didn't _get _it. She might have tried to explain, _'I'd rather be sad with you than happy on my own,'_ but she was sure Naruto would stare at her in utter bafflement, because in his stupidly self-sacrificial brain it likely wouldn't make sense. But when she saw him exhausted and hurt, trying to stuff it all down for their sake, she couldn't even really feel her own frustration.

"I really don't want to talk right now," Naruto said quietly.

A pause, as they all looked down at the floor. Sakura sneaked a glance at Sasuke. She was all out of ideas.

He took a step toward the twin beds, but before that he breathed in, deep, bracingly. She blinked. Sasuke's body language was usually subtle, but as she watched him from the corner of her eye, it was almost blatant, and not just because she'd gotten used to read him. The tense shoulders, the slightly bowed head - anyone could have seen it. He stepped between the beds and instead of joining them on Naruto's he sat on his own, with the aisle between them, and that was pretty usual for him but...

She slipped Naruto a quick glance. He was frowning at Sasuke, puzzled.

"I..."

Sasuke paused there, as if he couldn't find his words. Sakura turned in her seat so she would face him more, though the aisle was big enough that he was out of arm's reach.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"You don't have to talk," he said abruptly to Naruto. His hands were gripping the edge of the mattress. "It's more of an announcement. Not a discussion." A pause. A rasp, sudden, shockingly raw, "It's not up for discussion."

Naruto straightened up, dead serious.

"It's about Itachi, isn't it," he said, not even like a question.

Sasuke didn't answer, but then again he didn't need to.

She'd seen Itachi for longer than Sasuke had - oh, almost a whole minute longer! - and he and his brother hadn't even talked - or had they? She thought she remembered Itachi's voice, as Sasuke's body trapped her on the ground, but she'd heard it all garbled, deafened by terror. She'd expected Sasuke to hurt for a good long while afterwards, of course, the wound that the massacre of his family had left opened again, but she hadn't really... it had barely been thirty seconds at most, that couldn't be enough for more than a reminder, a refresher course on why Itachi was evil and a monster and needed to die. Not enough for a brand-new trauma.

This, she could tell, this would be huge.

"You remember the day I told you he was my kill?"

Naruto flinched, a horrible grimace twisting his face with pain. "The day I ate that guy?" he said, voice shaking. Sakura flinched. "Yeah, weird enough I remember, fuck you!"

Sasuke shook his head no, cut him off with a hard gesture of his hand. "Shut up! It's not - _let me finish_."

Bile rose in her throat at the memory of that day, maybe two, three years ago - a genjutsu-type missing-nin, the mission supposedly B-rank on paper but so very much not in real life. He'd made Naruto believe they were all dead, and it had... done things to - Naruto was exaggerating, he hadn't _eaten_ the man - just. _Bitten_. (A lot.) She tried to stuff the memory away, scowled at Sasuke for bringing it up when the thing with Kyuubi was still so recent.

She could probably blame that day on Kyuubi as well. Back then, when she still didn't know, her only choice had been to push it all on the genjutsu user and weird aftereffects and try to forget it, because she'd known it wasn't Naruto, just couldn't be. Turned out she was right, but that didn't make it any less horrifying. At least the genjutsu user was long dead. Kyuubi wasn't.

Sasuke raked his hand through his hair, and then looked up, and Sakura's gut tightened painfully, her protective anger forgotten. Oh god, those eyes. Oh, hell.

"I changed my mind."

Naruto seemed struck as dumb as she was.

"-What?"

Sasuke's eyes. All that pain.

All that grief.

"I change my mind. He's - I still want to kill him. It's still my duty. It's still my -"

"Sasuke-"

"Shut up and _listen_, it's not a discussion. He's still my brother, but if you get the chance - don't stop on my account."

She was off the bed now, standing before him with her hand clenched on his forearm. "Sasuke!"

He didn't even seem to notice her leaning in his space, or her tight hold on his arm. "I _want _to kill him, but we need him dead more. Do you get it? We _need_ him dead, he needs to be dead, right now, he'll kill the baby, he'll kill you both and I can't - _I can't._"

"Sasuke-kun!"

"I don't _care_ who kills him anymore, _he just needs to be dead!_"

Naruto slid off his bed, caught Sasuke's shoulder and yanked him up on his feet, shaking and growling as he pressed a hand to Sasuke's mouth. "Enough, that's enough, I get it. I will. Promise."

"He needs to be dead," Sasuke repeated, dislodging Naruto's hand with a quick shake of his head. "He needs to be dead more than I need to kill him."

Sakura hadn't cried earlier but she felt tears rise again and this time she didn't stop them.

"Oh," she whispered. "I'm sorry."

Sasuke let out a bark of crazy-edged laughter and she winced. "What the fuck for, isn't that what you wanted, isn't that what everyone wanted-"

"You still love him," she said.

Sasuke was silent for so long that she thought he wouldn't answer, that he _couldn't_ answer - that he would just pretend she hadn't said it. She wished she hadn't, but it was so horribly true.

"I don't know how to stop," he said, very quietly.

Naruto choked on something that couldn't decide between a growl and a wounded whimper and yanked him into a tight, almost brutal hug.

Tears rolled hot and wet down her face, soaking into the back of Sasuke's shirt. God but she was so tired of it all. Being attacked and hurt, and watching over children she wasn't good enough to heal, and fighting people she wasn't good enough to fight, and failing to protect, and having her life saved almost at the cost of someone else's, and Naruto _breaking_, and _Sasuke_ breaking -

She couldn't break as well, she needed to be strong for them. She had to take up the slack for once and be the rock for them to lean on.

She failed. She cried and cried, and the guilt from setting them off only made it all worse. She could feel them both trembling, entangled as the three of them were. She could hear them gasping for air in between not-silent-enough sobs. It was horrible.

People would probably have wise things to say about crying it out - that it was good for them, that they couldn't let it all fester, that they needed to air it out at some point, but those people didn't know a thing. It just felt like another failure, it wasn't a relief at all. It was just exhausting.

At some point they stopped, gradually, mostly because their bodies didn't want to keep going. They broke apart, almost by accident, as they sank to the floor and sat, Sasuke slumped against the side of his bed and Naruto in the corner. Sakura leaned her shoulder against the side of the other bed. From the corner of her eye she saw them gazing away, anywhere but toward each other. It looked like defeat.

"... Shit." Sasuke rubbed his palm across his face. "I didn't plan to make this into such a circus. A quick announcement..."

Naruto snorted halfheartedly. "Yeah, not happening."

The hospital beds were so high it made like a little hiding place between them. Standing she couldn't have reached from one mattress to the next with her arm, but three pairs of legs in there, that should have been another story. But both of her teammates had their legs drawn up, almost to their chest, so that no one accidentally touched.

"So." Sakura bowed her head for a second, looking for inspiration. All she saw was her cast, resting across her stomach. "We need a plan."

"For?"

She had no idea. She bit her lip. "... Things."

"Training," Sasuke said.

"Yeah. We need to be able to defend ourselves. That - the way they just..." Naruto gave a disgusted growl. "We could be stronger. We should have been."

Sakura nodded slowly. He was right. For so long they had cruised along, because the Council didn't want a team with a traitor and a demon to progress too fast, because if they wanted to build good will they couldn't complain that they didn't get the most dangerous missions possible anymore, because Kakashi wasn't allowed to teach Sasuke, because, because - it all seemed like silly excuses now. What the hell had they been doing for so long, stuck in that holding pattern, that limbo?

"Training has to become a priority. We'll have to limit the number of missions we take, just go for the ones that offer better fights and drop the rest."

"Money?" Sakura pointed out.

"We've got savings. There's banks. At worst we'll borrow from them. Make it up later."

Naruto nodded vaguely; Sakura waited for him to go 'hah' because that was a reversal of their old argument, Sasuke now espousing Naruto's view on money that he had rejected back then, but he didn't.

Silence again.

"It's because of the baby, right?"

Sakura and Sasuke blinked at Naruto.

"You and Itachi. You and - you and the baby."

Sakura opened her mouth to protest Naruto's words, but then she realized she couldn't. The baby made them stop being just a team, something Sasuke could dismiss. It made them a family. She clenched her fingers into a fist, out of Sasuke's line of sight.

He didn't say anything, for a second, two, ten.

"...I guess."

"Get married," Naruto said, staring ahead with grim stubbornness. "Soon. Before shit happens. 'Cause afterwards..."

Sakura bit her lip. The marriage - oh, they'd planned it, had even mentioned it to her parents. But it had always seemed to belong to 'later', a nebulous and faraway time. Later, we'll marry, and there will be the baby, and it was like something a little out of time, out of danger. It wasn't. They weren't.

"What if," she whispered. "What if you're her father, Naruto?"

She saw them both flinch. "We've talked about that before!" Naruto retorted, meeting her eyes this time around. "It doesn't matter, okay? It's - he or she - she'll be ours anyway. We've talked about that."

"Not a lot."

"It was enough! We understood each other, right? Right, Sasuke?"

Sasuke was watching her, utterly unreadable. "Have you changed your mind?" he asked. His voice was as blank as his face.

"No," Sakura whispered. "I want to be your wife. But I want to be Naruto's wife too."

She really did.

Uchiha Sakura... Uzumaki Sakura. It didn't sound half-bad either.

"... And it's not fair to make you marry me when I could be having his child - when you could - when you could have your children with someone else."

She saw them both stiffen. Naruto's hand reached for hers, squeezed. She squeezed back, even though he was this close to giving her a second cast to balance out the first. He'd be a great husband - in a totally different way from Sasuke, but a great husband, fun and loving and caring...

"You want family, Sasuke. You want lots of them, and this one might not even be yours, and _I_ want to train and fight with the both of you, this child might be an orphan by next year because I won't let the two of you fight alone - who knows when there will be time to have more, and there's so many clans who would be glad to -"

"_Shut up_."

"-I don't want that, I don't want to see you marry anyone else but-"

"I don't want anyone else to be the mother of my children!"

Oh.

She bit her lip to keep it from trembling. Naruto's thumb was rubbing her knuckles back and forth, back and forth.

"We'll - I don't know." Sasuke raked his hand through his hair, waved it in a meaningless gesture, let it flop back down. "Teach you kagebunshin so you can have several pairs of twins at the same time. Clone them in a lab. I don't know. I don't care. Until Naruto somehow turns himself into a real, functional woman and lets me knock him up, you're the only one. Shut up."

"Oi!"

Naruto kicked out, his leg crossing the empty space between the two of them like they hadn't spent the last, oh, ten minutes, pretending it was the Great Suna Canyon. Sasuke kicked back. Kick, kick, push and kick, legs tangling together as they squabbled like children, like always, and she couldn't help but laugh, even though she still wanted to cry.

God help her but she wanted them both. Just like that, being competitive and ridiculous and completely absorbed in each other.

She turned her cracked arm outward, fingers uncurling toward Sasuke's side. He paused, looked at her. She waited, apologies in her eyes, hand offered.

Naruto wriggled his foot free from where Sasuke's knee pinned it and sneaked in a stealth kick, digging his toes in Sasuke's thigh. Sasuke turned back to him like a striking snake, eyes narrowed in challenge, and slipped his legs past Naruto's guard to pin both of Naruto's legs back down.

But even as he proved his mastery of techniques and holds on Naruto, he still reached back for her hand.

She didn't think she would ever be able to explain to any outsider how and why the sight of the both of them so absorbed in trying to outdo each other in utter _stupid_ managed to put such a fond smile on her face.

They weren't right yet, playing it up for an audience of two, attempting to convince themselves along with each other and her, attempting not to notice all those things that still waited nearby, crowding them. Their mock-competition stopped too soon, not enough insults and offense. But at the same time...

At the same time, when they stopped fighting their legs were so entangled it would be a miracle if they could get up in time to defend from an attack. Sakura shifted her weight on her folded legs, set her feet against the linoleum, so that _she _could.

Next time she'd protect them. She really would.


	22. TW3 Interlude: Beach Party

_-I'm calling it an interlude because it's an outsider POV, but really it's both chapter-sized and quite necessary for the plot. __Do not question the Asukalogic. It'll get you nowhere._

_-Okay, about it being the last emo chapter? I kinda lied, but this is also the fixing-it chapter. So. This is full of schmoopiness. Whoa. XD_

_Man, I love Ino POV. She's not smart in an intellectual way, but in an emotional way? Hell yes._

_

* * *

_

**Interlude: Beach Party  
****(Ino)**

The hospital was letting them go. It was a happy occasion. Yet when Ino saw them walk into the hospital lobby the gloom almost choked her.

There was something distant and harsh in the tilt of Sakura's chin, watchful. Something brittle in Naruto's eyes. Sasuke... harder to read, but not by much. Their eyes were a little puffy.

They walked well inside each other's personal space, reverse-triangle formation like they vaguely expected an attack. In the middle, a step back, in the safest position, was Naruto. Ino would have expected Sakura; instead, despite her arm in a cast from hand to elbow, she took the wide-open side, and left the wall to Sasuke. Kakashi-sensei was trailing behind them and kept throwing them little glances like he didn't know by which end to handle them, and, well, she was pretty sure he didn't.

When they were about to reach her, Ino called "Hey guys!" with a grin, and pretended she hadn't noticed. Sakura and Naruto smiled back, but it was the same mechanical response, the same vague 'oh, hell, she's going to be _upbeat _at us.'

She was glad she'd been warned about Naruto's eyes, because god that was weird. But Kiba's pupils were more obviously strange, with their total lack of visible irises; unless you were close you had to be looking for it to notice the shape of Naruto's.

"Hi, Ino."

"Hiya! So you're all free to go?" she asked, falling into step with Sakura.

"Yeah."

Gee, how chatty. It felt a little strange when she realized she was being stonewalled by Sakura - not even actively blocked out, just... Being kept at bay, emotionally speaking, like she was a stranger, an acquaintance at best, not _supposed_ to be privy to the personal stuff.

She had known it happened sometimes when your friends hooked up, but for a second she was jealous that Naruto and Sasuke had taken her best friend away.

"Got anything planned?"

The three of them exchanged a quick look, like they hadn't even thought that far, but the same thing came from Sasuke and Sakura's mouths anyway.

"Training."

"Training, I suppose."

Naruto blinked slowly and then nodded. "Yeah, yeah."

"Actually," Kakashi said, calm but unyielding, "I'm going to have to veto that."

Team Seven came to a halt and turned to him in blank disbelief. Kakashi stared them down, expressionless even past the mask.

"There will be no sparring and no ninjutsu practice today."

Ino would have expected Naruto to protest first, but while he looked frustrated and a little hurt, it was the flash of thwarted fury in Sakura's eyes that caught her flat-footed.

"Why the hell not?"

Kakashi's voice was low, made not to carry past the five of them, but he didn't pull his punch any more than that. "Because you're still not realizing you're off the battlefield. You're officially on leave until you can get that through your heads."

Sasuke's shoulders were stiff when he touched Sakura's arm to get her to settle down, and his voice bitter. "Are we allowed pushups?"

"Sixty minutes of exercise a day, to maintain fitness." And Kakashi had said 'sixty' because he meant 'and not one minute more.'

They'd forgotten she was there. Ino didn't really mind; it gave her the time to observe and analyze.

She knew why Kakashi was giving that order. They'd gotten hurt by a stronger enemy, but the wounds didn't matter, the rage at their own powerlessness did. If they were allowed to spar, it would get too serious and spiral out of control very quickly. Therefore, not allowed before they got their heads screwed on back straight.

As for fitness... A lot of ninjas Ino knew used excessive training as a form of self-abuse, a way to meld the society-condoned attempt to improve themselves with self-punishment for failing to measure up to impossible standards in the first place. If Sasuke's whole life wasn't an exercise in punishing himself for things that weren't his own damn fault, Ino didn't know what was, and Naruto binged on training like some did on chocolate when there was something he felt he had to master _right now_. She hadn't quite expected the same response out of Sakura; her friend had more sense than to think one manic burst of obsessive, brutal exercise would allow her to make up for years of trailing behind...

Which meant if no one did anything about their mental state before they started down that path, they'd quickly make that type of desperate session into a routine. And that kind of mindset... No.

So Ino grinned brightly, and she planted a fist on her hip, and steeled herself. "Well, good! Because I'll be damned if I came all the way to this godforsaken country and didn't get to spend a day at the beach, and you three are coming with me."

They stared at her. Over Sasuke's head, Kakashi's visible eyebrow furrowed. Do you know what you're doing? he seemed to ask. She flipped her hair. Of course she did.

"Now hurry up, hurry up! We'll miss the tide."

Ino had zero clue what on Earth the tide would do to make their beach experience all that different, and she didn't even remember whether it was currently high, low, or lopsided, but it gave her an excuse to slip her arm under Sakura's and pull her firmly toward the door.

"Ino-pig!" Sakura protested, but Ino was just glad she was using that stupid nickname again and so she only grinned harder as she dragged her out of the hospital.

Sasuke and Naruto trailed behind, Sasuke stalking like an angry tiger and Naruto dragging his feet. Kakashi didn't follow.

"Hey, might as well," Naruto said with a sigh as he stepped out in the street. "Hotel's gonna be too boring."

Sasuke and Sakura didn't counter that, and Ino considered it an argument won. But now she needed something else - something more. Because on her own she wasn't going to manage to get very far.

When she caught sight of Shikamaru at the window of the big administrative building, it was an unexpected present. She waved wildly, beaming. "Oi, Shikamaru!"

He waved back somewhat, lifting a hand a few inches and no higher, taking them all in. Ino sneaked a quick meaningful look toward the members of Team Seven that she knew her teammate would catch. Shikamaru had higher clearance and knew more of the circumstances than she did; he'd get her meaning.

"We're going to the beach! Come with us."

"Some of us have jobs to do," he replied - halfheartedly, which meant there was leeway to convince him otherwise. Ino knew all of Shika's responses by heart. This one was almost permission to bully him.

"They can spare you for a little bit," she retorted. "Just take your second lunch break or something. I'm not going back to Konoha without having spent some time at the beach!"

Shikamaru grumbled something under his breath, and Ino knew she had already won. Great! She seriously needed some support if she was going to do any good today.

Then Temari of the Sand appeared at the window beside him - in the other angle, but the window was narrow so that wasn't exactly far away. "Oh yes, you're looking at the sky because you're so busy," she said with a healthy dose of sarcasm, and nodded her head in greeting at the little group down in the street.

Ino scowled briefly. Where did she come off manipulating Ino's teammate when Ino was already doing it? Ino didn't need help bending him to her whims.

"The beach, huh," Temari said, considering. "Alright, let's go."

"You weren't invited, you realize," Shikamaru told her, but it wasn't with any kind of seriousness, any actual rejection.

Temari smirked at him, perfectly sure of her welcome. "I'm inviting myself. Any of you mind?"

"Nah, the more the merrier," Naruto replied, though it seemed rather automatic to Ino's ears.

Shikamaru and Temari disappeared inside the building. Ino fumed in silence for a good ten seconds before telling herself that the important thing right now wasn't a stranger worming her way inside their group; the important was Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto's mental wellbeing, and if there was the slightest chance Temari would help distract them, then it was okay.

When the door opened, Ino was expecting Shikamaru and Temari, but instead it was a couple of Sand ANBU who walked out first, taking position to cover the street - and then came out the Kazekage himself along with his sister and Ino's teammate.

"Naruto," he said quietly.

"... Hey, Gaara."

The way they looked at each other, Ino felt as if she was only privy to maybe one third of the real conversation.

Naruto managed a smile, and while it was real enough, it seemed a little pained and not enough happy and uncomplicated for Ino's peace of mind. Or Sasuke's; she could see him watching his teammate as well, his brow furrowed.

"Will the small cove by the northeast harbor work for your purposes?"

Ino blinked as Gaara addressed her, caught flatfooted. "Uhh - I... suppose so?"

"Good," Gaara said briskly. "We will be coming as well."

"... Ah." Ino floundered for a second. "Sure! The more, the merrier and all that." Gaara only glanced at her like it hadn't been a question and he didn't have a clue why she bothered to keep talking about it.

The ANBUs zipped off without a word, and Ino grimaced faintly when she realized they would have an escort. Getting Sasuke to open up was going to be harder, not that she had ever counted on it being easy. No matter. Ino tossed her ponytail over her shoulder and started walking down the street with bold steps, pulling Sakura along. Behind her, Gaara and Shikamaru fell into step with Naruto, sandwiching him neatly.

"Hey, Uchiha," Temari said. "Nice day, huh?"

"It's going to rain."

Ino tried not to smirk.

The trip down to the cove wasn't too long, but it was singularly monosyllabic. Sakura wasn't talking much, and Sasuke wasn't talking at all. Neither Gaara nor Shikamaru seemed inclined to prod Naruto to speak, so he only exchanged a couple of platitudes with the both of them.

"Ta-dah!" Ino exclaimed when they reached the end of the winding path and got to the small cove. Cliffs blocked almost all the sides, and there were reefs in the water that meant no boat would risk it. The beach itself was unremarkable, strewn with drying seaweed and a bit steep for proper lounging. It really didn't matter right now. At least it was sunny. Sunlight was always relaxing.

"Okay! Shoes off, everyone." She took off her sandals and stepped onto the hot sand. She'd had to let Sakura's arm go, though, and her friend drifted back toward her teammates without even seeming to realize. Ino sighed. At least Temari was already undoing her ankle straps, and Shikamaru only grumbled something disparaging for appearances' sake as he bent over to do the same.

"This is such a waste of time," Sasuke growled quietly to his teammates. Sakura's eyelid twitched in shared annoyance.

Forehead-girl was supposed to be the smart one, Ino thought with frustration, so why wasn't she taking a step back from the situation and seeing what needed to be done? Argh.

"Shoes off, Sasuke-kun, or it'll be sand in your underwear," Ino sang playfully, giving Sasuke an encouraging smile.

"I'd like to see you try," he snapped.

-ahaha. Damn it. How come her special kunoichi techniques to defuse aggressiveness never worked on him? Come to think of it, no kunoichi technique ever worked on mister Uchiha. Sakura was deluding herself, the boy was gayer than a spring festival.

Ino had a flash of inspiration. "Gaara would help me, wouldn't you?" she said, smiling conspiratorially at him.

The Kazekage arched a nonexistent eyebrow at her in a clear 'I would?' manner. Ino's smile turned more stiff. Yes, yes he would. Curse them, why were they all so socially retarded?

But before she had to make good on her threat, Naruto nudged Sasuke with his elbow and sat on the sand to take off his. "Hey, may as well." He slipped his toes in the warm sand, surprise briefly crossing his face. "... This is pretty nice, actually."

"Well, of course," Ino replied, smug. It wouldn't distract him much, but it was something. At least he didn't seem to be stewing in rage from being forbidden to train like Sasuke still was. More like... resigned.

Ino found she didn't like resigned-Naruto very much. It was like dieting-Chouji; in theory it sounded like a good idea but in practice it was just very wrong.

Temari sat on the dune; Shikamaru flopped a couple of steps away from her, reclining against a convenient rock. Gaara walked slowly down to the water, scrutinizing the small cove for who knew what.

Sakura sighed, raked a hand through her hair - it was kind of a mess, Ino noticed - and sat down on the spot, though it was more of a slump than anything else. Her knee bumped Naruto's; he didn't look up. Sasuke was still standing a step behind, back straight and shoulders stiff.

Keeping watch.

Kakashi was right; in their minds they were still on the battleground.

"Any ANBU in the water?" Ino asked Gaara teasingly as he came back.

"Three," Gaara replied, making her blink. She'd been joking. Somewhat. She should have guessed. Ino opened her mouth, not knowing what she would answer yet, but Gaara looked straight past her. "Nine on the cliffs. Four of yours, five of mine. Out of earshot, so long as we don't shout. You can stand down, Uchiha."

Sasuke's jaw worked, but he didn't sit down until Gaara sat too, and when he did it was with stiff unwillingness.

It made almost a circle, a misshapen one - Sasuke some distance on her left, and then Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru against his rock facing Ino, and next to him Temari, and Gaara. Gaara was also keeping his distances. Ino felt a little isolated. How charming. She moved uphill, a little closer to the center, crossed her legs elegantly, and leaned back on her hand.

"Let's play a game."

All of Team Seven plus Gaara gave her an incredulous look, and Temari snorted like she'd said something accidentally amusing and vaguely ridiculous.

Shikamaru arched an eyebrow at her, but it was his 'interesting opening gambit' look, and that was all the encouragement Ino needed. "Why not," he said, crossing his hands behind his head.

"I'm not really in the mood to play, Ino-pig," Sakura said, mostly so Sasuke wouldn't have to bother snapping back something far less diplomatic.

Ino's eyes hardened. "Tough luck. Because we're drowning in emo right now. Don't worry, it won't be a very fun game for anyone involved."

Sakura stiffened, and this time Ino really felt like her best friend was _seeing _her. Ino stared back, challenging.

"The game. Share one thing you regret, and then one thing you're glad for. Anything you want. I'll start."

"No," Sasuke said, and moved to get back up.

"I'm glad you saved me again," Gaara said, looking straight at Naruto.

A strange expression passed on Sasuke's face, and then another, subtly different, slightly more like pain, when Naruto's hand reached blindly up to his wrist and tugged him back down without a word. Naruto and Gaara were still staring at each other.

Ino remembered to close her mouth. Okay, Gaara had stolen her turn, but nothing she could have said would have packed such a punch.

Naruto opened his mouth, though nothing came out for a few seconds. "Hell, it's not like I could have just _not_ - I - it's not _again _anyway, it's - "

"You don't get to tell Gaara what he's feeling thankful for," Temari said with a total absence of inflection. "I think we should rule that out."

"Agreed," Ino said, though it bugged her a little that she hadn't thought about it first. "No commenting. Gaara, it's still your turn. One thing you regret?"

Gaara tilted his head, gazing down at the beach sightlessly. "... Only one, hm."

"Don't worry, you'll probably have several turns," Temari said with unexpected gentleness. "Just say the first one that comes to mind?"

Gaara sifted beach sand through his fingers. Bits of broken seashell stayed caught on his palm. "I regret Masago protected me before I could protect him."

Sakura bit her lip and asked softly, like she didn't really want to know but still _had_ to, "Who is Masago?"

"My secretary," Gaara said dispassionately. "Uchiha Itachi put him in a coma."

Ino winced. She leaned toward being glad that Gaara had come, but his total lack of tact was going to be a major hindrance.

Naruto looked pained. "Aw, hell, Gaara..."

"He'll wake up," Sasuke said brusquely. "I did. No lasting damage."

Gaara looked at him for a second, and then nodded slowly. "That's good. Thank you."

"...Mnh," Sasuke acknowledged with reluctance.

Ino breathed out as she realized her plan was going to work. So far there was half of the conversation she couldn't follow because she didn't know the events they were referring to, but it didn't matter; she wasn't the one who needed to go home feeling more understood.

But if she took over the following turn, then Sasuke would be next, and he wasn't ready yet. So she grinned at Shikamaru. "Your turn!"

"Aw, geez." He sighed, but didn't protest more than that. "I regret I didn't gather more info on the Akatsuki in general and that I didn't even think they might find the situation too tempting to pass up. I feel _stupid_."

He said it like it was a capital crime. Ino chuckled weakly. She should have known he would take it so seriously. At his side, Temari looked vaguely sympathetic and totally unsurprised.

"It's not your fault!" Naruto protested. "I mean how could you guess what a bunch of crazy psychos would do?"

"Naruto... I'm a tactical analyst. It's my _job_."

"But you can't analyze if you don't have the data," Ino said. "Unless you're psychic now, too."

"But I _had_ the data. Some. Enough."

"Of course, if you're going to bring hindsight into it," Temari said, rolling her eyes. "Psychic isn't too far off."

Shikamaru arched an eyebrow at her. "What was that again about not questioning other people's answers?"

Temari snorted like his avoidance had won her the argument. Ino scowled a bit. She would have argued back that clearly it counted only for the 'grateful' part and completely sidetracked everyone. The revelation irritated her; she couldn't entirely keep it out of her voice. "What do you feel grateful for?"

Shikamaru gave her a strange, questioning look, but took over again without comment. "I'm grateful you lot didn't die... Because it would have been an inter-village political mess to sort out."

"Hey," Naruto protested, kicking sand at Shikamaru's leg. Shikamaru didn't even bother moving to dodge it.

"You skipped me," Temari drawled. "That better not become a habit. Anyway... I regret I couldn't keep Kankuro from landing in the hospital and Gaara from getting grabbed by psychos. He could have died and if he hasn't it's no thanks to me."

Her gaze was frank, sober, sincere. Pulling no punches. Ino was starting to wonder if she ever did.

"I am the Kazekage, not you," Gaara said with a little frown. "We've talked about it before."

"And my position hasn't changed," Temari said, a little quieter, a little wounded.

"Mine either."

Ino didn't have a clue what they were arguing about - though it wasn't much of an argument; Gaara wasn't willing to reconsider his stance or think twice about Temari's and that was pretty much it.

"... If you had been too much of a threat to them, you would be dead. I... would not like it."

Temari blinked quickly and looked down at her hands. Ino looked away, bothered. She didn't like seeing underneath Temari's bitch armor; it just seemed wrong.

"A good thing... Hm." Temari lifted her head, looked at Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke. "I owe you. All three of you." She gave them a faint smirk. "Usually I don't like owing people much, but for you I'll make an exception."

Sakura waved her hand to dismiss the idea, surprised. "Ah - it's alright."

Naruto was blushing a little. "Hey, we're friends, right? There's no debts between friends."

"Sure there is," Shikamaru drawled. "Or else I'm never going to get my book back from Kiba."

Ino narrowed her eyes, suspicious. "Since when does Kiba read your books?"

Shikamaru pretended he was interested in some shapeless wisp of cloud and conveniently forgot to answer. Naruto looked away guiltily. "Uh, I have no idea either."

"... Oh, gross!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes in a drawn-out 'I am not even surprised but it's still pitiful' way. Temari snorted, with about the same feeling.

Ino pointed and said "Shikamaru, I can't _believe _you!", but inside she was grinning because they had all relaxed, even just a bit. She waited until Sakura's faint smile had subsided before nodding at her. "Hey, Forehead. Your turn."

Sakura started raking her fingers through the sand and making little piles. "... I regret that I keep being dead weight."

Ino opened her mouth to protest, on principle, a little shocked that Naruto and Sasuke weren't; but then Sakura looked up, and her eyes glinted in a sharp, diamond-hard way.

"It's never going to happen again."

Ino looked at her best friend, her oldest rival, and felt like Sasuke and Naruto had taken her away again. Because right now she knew without a doubt that Sakura had moved past her. Because Ino wasn't who Sakura was aiming for anymore, wasn't who she was measuring herself up against. They weren't rivals anymore in any way that counted.

It ached. She smiled, though, thin and approving, because if she didn't approve then she would be worthless as a friend too.

"Sasuke knows why I'm glad." Sakura rested her cheek on her knees and smiled at him, a little shaky. "I'm glad for you."

Once again Ino felt like she was accidentally overhearing some randomly chosen part of a private conversation, and even more when Sasuke's dark eyes softened.

It didn't last, though, and then he looked away, gazing inwards. "I'm not. I still feel like it's wrong."

Sakura looked a little sad. "It's not."

"It is." He breathed out slowly, straightened his shoulders, regret giving place to sober determination. "The other choice is worse, though, so that's it."

Naruto chuckled almost silently and his hand slid across the sand, curled around Sasuke's wrist. To Ino's surprise, Sasuke allowed it.

"You make everything so friggin' complicated."

"Yeah, well. Your turn."

It came to Ino at that moment that Naruto and Sasuke weren't just doing Sakura, but also _each other_. She should have been more politically correct or romantic or whatnot, but in her own mind she didn't have to, and _Sasuke and Naruto were having sex with each other_.

The bitch hadn't told her _that_. Ooh, she was going to get it. Though it explained a hell of a lot, like why she seemed to still feel insecure about having two hot boyfriends ready to share with another guy just so they could date her, and - and it really wasn't the time and place to dwell on it, so Ino put a lid on it and let it simmer in a corner of her mind.

"I regret," Naruto said, and his hand fell away from Sasuke's wrist. Sasuke bumped the back of his hand against Naruto's fingers fake-accidentally, like he was telling him 'hey, why'd you let go' and a corner of her brain said 'oh yeah, definitely doing it.' Another part said 'this is love' and 'I didn't think Sasuke really could.'

"I regret," Naruto said again, a little choked up, like he didn't want them to know it hurt but it was too hard for him to do anything but a shitty job at hiding it.

Sakura's fingers wrapped around Naruto's other hand, that he held in a fist on his lap, and she leaned against his shoulder, waiting in silence.

"... I couldn't control him."

"What part of 'unbreakable sleep jutsu' do you have a problem with, moron?" Sasuke asked, almost conversationally.

"The unbreakable part," Naruto said with a laugh that sounded a little like there was a sob caught somewhere behind it.

Sasuke snorted. "You would. Idiot."

"Yes, it is expected of you," Gaara said, smiling faintly.

Naruto took a deep breath and threw himself into the rest before, Ino supposed, anyone could tell him it wasn't actually his fault. "I'm grateful to you all, for not being dead, and for being here, and you better not die. Ever."

"You're pretty sappy, Uzumaki," Temari commented with a teasing little smirk.

Naruto glared at her a bit. "No I'm not."

"Uh huh. Sure. You're a giant sap."

Naruto turned huge blue eyes to his female teammate. A little overplayed, not quite hiding the pain behind, but he was trying and Ino thought that was something. "Sakura-chan, she's being mean to me."

"My poor dear," Sakura said with fond mockery, and slipped her fingers in his hair to comb it away from his forehead. Naruto leaned into her hand for a second.

"If you're gonna fight her for my honor, can I watch?"

Unsurprisingly, Sakura rapped her knuckles on his skull, though it was so light Naruto only said "Ow!" out of habit.

Shikamaru was the one who interrupted them, quietly but determined. "Sasuke, your turn."

"I regret," Sasuke said, and then frowned like he was disappointed in himself for falling into the silly game pattern. "I'm still weak."

Ino sighed. The guy was shaping up to be one of the most lethal ninja of their generation, and he complained about being too weak. Someone here had a really skewed sense of perspective, and she didn't think it was her. "Another clause. Concrete things only! No general moping allowed." Sasuke glared at her. Aw damn, now he probably thought she was insulting him or something. She met his eyes, steady and serious. "Sasuke-kun, please."

"That's concrete enough for me. I'm too weak, what else is there to say?" he said. There was something raw in his voice that made Ino look away. "Next."

"One thing you feel good about," Sakura prompted him softly.

Sasuke closed his eyes. For a moment Ino thought he wasn't going to find anything to answer to that one either.

"... Marrying you," he said, so quiet she almost didn't hear it.

Aw, hell, and why was Ino getting teary-eyed so suddenly? She looked at Sakura; it would make her happy.

Sakura was smiling, sweet and soft and a little shaky. "I - think I'll keep it for my next turn, hm?"

Naruto stretched his leg, getting sand up his pants leg, and nudged Sasuke's foot.

Ino could practically see the connection between the three of them, however subdued they were acting at the moment. She tactfully looked away, feeling a pang of envy. She hadn't even found a guy she could see herself with for more than a few months; and in the most unconventional way ever, Sakura had those two, who seemed determined to stay until death. So unfair.

"Okay, my turn," she said.

She thought about it for a second. Nothing she had to say was going to measure up, of course. It wasn't going to help them feel understood if she chose badly.

Anything related to that big second-test clusterfuck would probably come across as generic and canned, and also pretty stupid; there was no way she might have been around to help, or been able to do a thing had she been, and she knew it. Of course she worried for them, and of course she wished she could have helped, but she wished she would win the lottery and buy herself three shops' worth of trendy clothes too.

Missing Sakura would be strong enough, but it would probably come across as if Ino was trying to make her feel guilty.

She still needed something personal. Something that wouldn't paint her in a very flattering light, so that other people would feel free to do the same later on.

"I regret... That when my aunt eloped with that civilian and left Konoha, and my father worried himself sick over her, the only thing I cared about was that he wasn't paying attention to me. The guy she married was bad news, Dad knew it, Mom knew it, I should have known it, but it didn't really matter to me. I regret I made my dad feel like he couldn't talk about her with me, every time we got some secondhand news about how bad she had it."

She did regret it a bit; though she'd been a child, and jealousy and lack of maturity were to be expected.

"And I regret that when she finally got a divorce and came back to Konoha last year and she was too ashamed to come home, and I knew Dad couldn't bring himself to take the first step, I didn't try to meet her and bridge the gap. Now I have a cousin who's a Yamanaka in name only and he could have gotten seriously hurt or even died before I even got to know him."

"Oh." Sakura looked at Ino, biting her lip. "I didn't know you felt that bad about it."

That... was pretty much because Ino didn't. She felt a little dishonest for exaggerating so much. She did feel kind of bad about the situation, but she didn't obsess over it; she'd just decided to go and fix it. She gave Sakura a reassuring half-smile and continued.

"I'm glad that I got my passport approved so I could come here during the one-month gap to train the hell out of him," she said with a mildly evil smirk, making Sakura - and Temari, how strange - chuckle. "He's in the tournament next month and he better make the Yamanakas look good. He's got so many clan jutsu to learn! I swear, I don't know where to start."

Naruto blinked, and gave her a tentative smile. "I think we met him before the first test. He's a fun kid. In a team with Hinata's little sister, right? And... some guy. Yeah, he's friendly."

Ino grinned back. "Yes, he is kind of cute, for a brat. But he better be a hard worker too."

Shikamaru shrugged. "He's been in Konoha less than two years and he's already done with the Academy and on a team taking the Chuunin exam. I wouldn't worry about that."

Surprised, Ino beamed at him. "Hee! Yeah, you're right. He'll be fine. Okay, next. Gaara?"

It was pretty much the last spot of fun they had for a while.

Gaara regretted that no matter what he did, part of the village would still tell tales to their kids about Gaara of the Desert, who soaked his sand in the blood of children. "At least they've started saying I only do it if they misbehave," he added, strangely melancholic.

Temari hated that she couldn't change people's minds about how much Gaara had changed, how totally different he was. But she was happy that some - more and more - people were changing their mind on their own. Made her feel a little less cynical about the human race. A little.

Shikamaru regretted that he'd let himself fall into a routine and stopped stretching himself and now he wasn't meeting expectations.

Of course Team Seven trumped them all.

"I regret I didn't go to Tsunade-sama much sooner, without waiting for an excuse. I regret that for so long I was glad for low-grade exercises for my health instead of grabbing the opportunity for all it was worth. I'm glad she agreed to take me as an apprentice, though I still don't know why she bothered."

"I as good as killed them. That big healer guy and that kid. I'd been playing around with that kid. He had that funny attack with a weirdass name. And they're operating today and they're -not optimistic. I'm glad - I'm glad, Sakura-chan told me, at least it was fast."

"I couldn't fight him off. I couldn't protect them. He just left because the jounin were coming. I'm not fucking glad, there's nothing to be glad about."

Sakura, Ino thought, would eventually be okay. She had decided on a course of action to fix her shortcomings and she was determined to see it through.

Naruto... Ino had no idea how on Earth he would have 'as good as' killed a kid, and she'd had to swallow a gasp and a 'No way!' But it was classified and need to know, and all she needed to know was how Naruto felt about what had happened - not the facts themselves but how Naruto took them.

Sasuke's issues were more disturbing, because when he said "I'm not good enough for my brother," she wanted to say, 'well, of course. You're younger, he had five more years to train.' Then she realized Sasuke hadn't meant _'I'm not good enough to stand against him.'_ He meant _'I disappointed him.'_

God, but he was fucked up. Ino felt the last remnants of her old crush die. Sasuke had a gorgeous face and an even better body, but he was such a mess, and she didn't know why it had taken her so long to realize how deep the fault lines ran.

But Sasuke had been fucked up for a good long while, and he wasn't that much worse off now than he'd been last week; he had long since learned to function around his damage, and a short discussion on a beach wouldn't make much of a dent. Ino nodded to herself and decided to concentrate on Naruto. The sooner he bounced back, the sooner Sasuke and Sakura's dark mood would lift.

"You're not arguing, Ino-pig."

Ino blinked and looked up at her best friend. Sakura watched her, a little wary, a little calculating. Naruto and Sasuke both looked stiff, their faces sporting unconvincing 'I don't care what you all think of what I just said' expressions. Ino knew a loaded question when she heard one. So did Shikamaru and the Sand siblings; they left the answer up to her.

"There's nothing to argue, is there? It's how you guys feel. No one can tell you that's wrong."

"You were, earlier," Naruto said.

Ino waved her hand in a dismissive way and smiled her understanding. "We weren't telling you that your feelings are wrong, just that if you're going to feel guilty it should be about things you really were responsible for, hm? You guys saved Gaara's life. You guys survived. Nothing that happened around those facts should make you feel guilty."

She let the silence settle; Naruto stared sightlessly at his feet as he thought about it.

"... And about those guys I ki - hurt... You're not gonna tell me it's not my fault?"

Oh, god, he was going to break her heart if he kept looking at her with those eyes. It didn't matter how weird his pupils looked, after so long seeing them round, that face went right to her heartstrings. Ino moved on hands and knees, crawled closer just so she could put a hand on his knee and squeeze.

"Naruto, we weren't there. You're the only one who knows how big or how little a part you played. It's something you're going to need a little longer to untangle - just don't get stuck on that feeling and never take a closer look, hm? It's okay to grieve and to regret. It's not okay to take more of the blame on yourself than you truly deserve. And if you really _are_ guilty of something, then it's normal to _feel_ guilty - and then you have to find a way to atone." She paused for a second, letting the words make their way through. "Just sitting there allowing it to crush you is no help to anyone. Not you, not the people you wronged, not the people who love you. You know?"

She met Naruto's eyes for a moment, until he nodded slowly - more acknowledgement that she had spoken than agreement, eyes already going unfocused as he considered her words. Then she sat back down; closer than she had been, but it was okay now.

Sakura gave her a trembling little smile, but it was Temari's thoughtful, weighing gaze that startled her. Shikamaru was smiling faintly. Ino huffed a little and flicked her bangs back behind her ear. What, did they all think she really was stupid?

"...Thanks."

Naruto still wasn't looking entirely convinced, but it didn't matter right now. He'd think on it. And he'd deal with the guilt faster if he had a strong support net of people by whom he felt valued, it was basic post-traumatic field care. So she squeezed his knee again and softened her voice. "We just love you, you know? We all do."

Gaara nodded slowly in agreement as Naruto's eyes filled with unshed tears.

"I wouldn't put it quite like that," Shikamaru drawled.

Temari smirked at him. "Not homoerotic enough for you?"

Naruto laughed - a slightly too-thick, too-wet sound, but a laugh all the same. He rubbed at his face with his sleeve, fighting to get himself back under control. "Man, I don't wanna know about your homowhatever, Shikamaru."

Temari nodded, falsely commiserating. "You've got enough of that at home, huh."

Sasuke's eyelid twitched. Ino tried not to find it funny.

"Hey!" Naruto protested. "Shika just doesn't go there."

"... A fact for which I am truly grateful."

"You're just jealous you didn't grab him first," Sakura said to Shikamaru, squeezing Naruto's hand.

Ino sighed mournfully. "I don't know if Shikamaru is jealous, but I know I am. Those abs! If only I had seen Naruto shirtless before you snatched him up." She paused, thoughtfully tapped her lip with a finger. "Yes, I believe this will do as my regret for this turn."

Naruto started blushing.

"... Ino-pig, are you flirting with my boyfriend?"

Ino smirked at Sakura, slow and satisfied. "Oh, I wouldn't _dare_."

Sakura threw a fistful of sand at her. Instead of descending into immaturity with her, Ino dusted herself off and gave a disdainful little sniff, pretending she wasn't smirking. "Oh, _really_, Sakura."

Her best friend rolled her eyes and made a 'Just you wait, I'll get you for this' little grimace. "Gaara, it's your turn," Sakura said primly, ignoring her ostensibly. Ino smirked harder.

"Is it?" He blinked. "Hm. I don't know that I regret anything else. Nothing that's worth mentioning, at any rate."

"It doesn't matter if it's a little silly," Ino said. "You could say you regret that it's been too long since the last time you ate your favorite pastry, or something."

Gaara watched her in silence with his too-pale eyes for a couple of unnerving seconds, and then he smiled faintly. "I regret I don't like pastries."

Ino blinked, caught flat-footed. Had Gaara just tried to make a joke? She let out a chuckle, more out of surprise than amusement. Naruto snickered; Shikamaru snorted; Temari made a soft choking sound and started grinning.

"Heh." Temari smiled at her little brother, with a sincerity and lack of cynicism that surprised Ino all over again. "In that case, I'm glad, because that means I can give all my baking experiments to Kankuro. I regret that it's probably going to poison him," she added, ironic. "How terrible. At least he's already inside the hospital."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "I regret that I let myself be conned into coming here."

He paused, sobered up.

"No, not really. I suppose... I'm not very happy with how little I've been visiting Asuma-sensei since he and Kurenai-sensei had the kid. I should fix that. Stop saying 'I'm too busy' or 'They're not going to want visitors today' so often."

Ino gave him an understanding look. Of their team, Shikamaru had always been the closest to their teacher, and by far. While she liked Asuma-sensei just fine, and was glad they'd gotten him for a teacher, for Shikamaru he was more of a beloved uncle, almost a second father. She could tell what had happened, too, and how slowly the gap had widened - a simple 'I shouldn't be selfish, I should let him concentrate more on his real family.'

Ino smiled faintly. Shikamaru didn't look like it, but he could be surprisingly sensitive in some ways.

"I'll remind you," she promised. "And if you get sidetracked again, I'll remind you more pointedly."

"Nag me, you mean." Shikamaru grimaced at her, pretending he minded.

"Nag you _with kunai_, even."

A rueful chuckle escaped from his throat. "That would be good, yeah. Thanks, Ino."

She waved it off, though the gratitude made her happy. The gratitude, and knowing she could read him so well, and knowing she could _help_, in her own way. Not as directly as some, not in a material, tangible way, but an important way even so.

She looked at the Team Seven trio; Naruto still depressed, but slowly unwinding into melancholy; Sakura leaning against his shoulder - casually, not like she had found him in a blizzard and was trying to keep him from freezing anymore; Sasuke... well, still unreadable, but at least he wasn't scowling. A couple more turns, perhaps, some more emotional bonding, and then hopefully they could just goof off together. Goofing off was another good way to bond, and an even better way to release tension and negativity.

They were all looking at Sakura now, the whole group, getting used to the cycle, but Sakura was staring at the sand, as if chewing her words over.

"Sakura-chan? It's your-"

"I don't like the house."

Sasuke blinked, and Naruto opened his mouth to say something; but Sasuke nudged him and he swallowed his words. Sakura scratched her foot with a chipped nail, not looking at either of her teammates.

"I know I should have told you two, but I just... I don't like the house. It's good to live together, but - I feel like we're camping. Like we're not _living_ there - we're just _waiting_." She took a deep breath and charged through the rest of her grievances, irritated and guilty. "And we can't knock down the wall between the upstairs bedrooms to make a decent-sized room because it's a load-bearing wall, and there's really not enough space to raise children in it, and the garden is ugly and the light is wrong, and - and I just don't like it!"

She deflated, once again staring at her feet, pretending that her wriggling toes were of the utmost importance.

"... Oh." Naruto blinked. "I didn't know. I kinda - I mean, it's bigger than my old apartment or Sasuke's, and I never had a garden before, so... I didn't think it was that bad." He paused. "But if you want to move, I'm game. I mean, it's just a house. Sasuke?"

Sasuke was, once again, brooding. Ino wasn't sure why, exactly. Houses, houses, what were his issues about - oh, right. It had probably belonged to one of his dead relatives - heck, no 'probably' about it. She knew it had to, by virtue of standing in the Uchiha district in the first place.

"I agree," he said suddenly. "It's someone else's home."

Naruto sighed. "Yeah but the whole district is someone else's home. And yours -"

Sakura kicked his ankle, but too late. Sasuke's jaw was already twitching.

"What about Uchiha's home?" Gaara inquired.

Sasuke gave him a flat, stony look. "I burned it down," he said in a tone that didn't invite commentary.

"Oh. Is that your regret for this turn?"

Sasuke scowled; Gaara had clearly overstepped his bounds. Being Gaara, he didn't seem to give a damn. Okay, Ino was definitely glad he'd come. Sasuke needed to learn to tolerate being pushed.

"No it's not."

"Renting is out?" Temari asked, in a matter-of-fact tone that was hard to take offense to, thought Sasuke obviously felt like the topic itself was doing that well enough. "There's only building from scratch left, then."

Ino grudgingly conceded the point. It had obviously not occurred to the members of Team Seven yet, considering the way they blinked.

"... It would be expensive, though," Naruto said slowly. "And it would take ages."

"Geeze, don't worry about that now," Shikamaru said, waving it off. "You've got plenty of time."

Ino quirked an eyebrow at him; she thought she recognized that calculating gleam in his eye. She would bet he was already trying to figure out how to arrange that. She'd leave it to him; he was better with concrete problems. The psychology was all hers.

"I regret I didn't notice," Naruto said with earnest apology. "We're gonna fix it, huh Sasuke?"

"Yeah, yeah." Sasuke rolled his eyes; "Same. Next."

Ino scoffed at Sasuke's blatant avoidance. But it didn't matter too much anymore; he didn't look as tightly wound now, just bored and annoyed that he would be forced to socialize. Naruto looked better, too, faced with a problem that was well in his ability to fix.

She would have liked to push them a little farther, but they would probably start balking really soon. Time to relax.

"I regret," she proclaimed sadly, "That I didn't buy that pretty dress when I could, because all that money went into buying you lot edible food at the hospital. It was Water Country exclusive fashion!"

Sakura huffed. "Well ex_cuse_ me - wait. How pretty are we talking?"

Ino started laughing. Shikamaru groaned. "Oh god. If you two are going to be girly, I'm done."

"Aw, Shikamaru! Come on."

"No, that's it, no more. I think I speak for everyone here."

Sasuke muttered a 'hear, hear' that made Ino do a double-take. Gaara nodded. Naruto jumped on his feet, startling everyone. "Yeah! Time to... Do something else. Like - uh. Okay, we have this _awesome _beach..."

Temari gave the rocks poking out of the sand and the smelly seaweed a pointed look. "Uh huh?"

"There's no way we can't do somethingwith it!"

Ino gave a falsely disappointed sigh. "Oh, fine. ...Oh, look, there's an empty bottle. We could use it to point -"

"Spin the Bottle?" Sakura asked with a vaguely horrified grimace. Gaara arched his... eyebrow ridge in question; Ino and Sakura both looked away and giggled nervously at the thought of having to explain it to him.

"No, no, just, I don't know - we could play 'Say one good thing about someone else!' Wouldn't it be fun?"

"Oh ew! You and your feel-good schmoopy... _feelingness_," Naruto protested. "We should play a manly game."

"Like seeing who can dive from the cliffs without hitting a reef head first, you mean?" Ino retorted, rolling her eyes.

Naruto's face lit up. "Oh yeah!"

"... Men."

"The water's too shallow, no one would win," Gaara pointed out, making Naruto pout, cheeks puffed up.

Ino grumbled. "And if you want to play any game with seaweed, _I'm _done."

Temari gave her deep-throated chuckle and threw the boys a challenging look. "Of course, if we had to play that 'say one good thing' game, we would have to add rules. For example, you can't formulate it like 'I guess you're not quite as terminally stupid on days that don't end in Y'."

Sasuke looked like he had smelled something stinky, at least until he pointedly turned his head to stare at the sea. Naruto stepped down the slope to block Sasuke's view, tilted his head to peer at his expression - and then he cracked up.

"Oh man. I take it back, it would be _great_."

"Shut up," Sasuke muttered. Sakura pressed her knuckles to her lips to hide her grin.

"But Sasu-kins has this handicap... How about he says it in his native language, and I translate for him?"

Sasuke threw him a dark glare. Naruto nodded like he had said something deep.

"That, for example, is 'geez, Naruto, thanks for the offer, you know I'm shy in public'."

Temari and Shikamaru were laughing, Gaara watching with faint amusement. Sasuke suddenly swept his leg out, leaning back on his hands, and kicked Naruto in the thigh, making him stumble back. Arms wheeling until he regained his balance, Naruto grinned at him and then gave a limp-wristed hand-flick.

"And this one is 'Stop embarrassing me, I'm going to blush! Oh my'."

Sasuke growled and rolled forward on his feet, using his momentum to slip under Naruto's guard and catch him with a shoulder in the stomach. He took a last couple of steps with Naruto thrown over his shoulder, laughing wheezily, and then he dumped him in the surf.

Naruto resurfaced, choking on the water and still laughing, and said he couldn't translate that in mixed company.

* * *

Ino was kind of sad, when the sun started going down, that they had to go. Even though her hair was a mess and she had sand in places no sand had any business being, and the tip of her nose was turning an unfashionable shade of well-done pink. They'd thrown sand and seaweed and a couple of crabs at each other; they'd all ended up getting dragged in the water, sometimes several times in a row. They'd swam, a little, between unpractical rocks, despite the lack of swimsuits and towels and the discomfort of air-drying. They'd horsed around. They'd had fun. They'd all grown a little closer.

Now they had to return to normal life and their current worries and even though she knew it was necessary she couldn't help but wish it could have waited a little while longer. That break would help, she was sure of it. But...

But, nothing. Ino sighed as she followed Temari up the sloping path, twisting saltwater out of her ponytail. Sakura and her boyfriends were on her heels, Shikamaru and Gaara bringing up the rear. Soon they would be back on the road, and then back to the village, and then -

They didn't even get that far, because where the path flattened before the road, Kakashi was waiting, inscrutable and vaguely sinister in his permanent black mask, an ominous square of paper in hand. For a second Ino was tempted to shove Team Seven back down the path before they could see him, hear what other bad news or reprimand he had to share.

Kakashi gave her a polite nod and an inquisitive look, and she reluctantly nodded back, a professional to another. Yes, they'd be fine. They could take it. Ino didn't _like_ it, but they could.

"Naruto?" Kakashi called as the group came to a stop around him.

Naruto didn't hesitate more than a second before he came forward, shoulders tensing again. "...Yeah?"

She realized in a flash that Kakashi's eye wasn't _distant_ - tired, but not remote.

And then he softened. Smiled.

"The kid woke up."

Naruto stared at him for a couple of seconds, and then he made a funny little hiccupping noise. Then his teammates were standing at his sides, and Sasuke was pressing a hand between Naruto's shoulder blades as he buried his face in Sakura's neck.

Ino slipped her arm under Shikamaru's elbow so she could herd the rest of them away; and when Gaara wouldn't come she hooked his arm, too, and grinned a wet, relieved grin. Now, _now_ she really believed they'd be okay. No, more than okay. They'd be great.


	23. TW chpt10: Absolution

Whoa. I didn't realize it's been so long since the last time I posted. Honestly I was still thinking about future plot and planning things pretty regularly and talking about it on LJ, and then one day I checked the posting date on ffnet. Cue yelling "It's been SIX MONTHS?" loud enough to bring my mother to the door, utterly baffled. It felt like maybe three or four months, tops. Oh self, what the hell.

But anyway. Still not planning to stop writing this anytime soon.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Absolution  
(Naruto)**

They'd made love to him all night. Sakura kissing him long and slow, her hands keeping his shoulders pinned to the mattress as Sasuke rocked patiently between his thighs. Sasuke playing backrest, pressed against him from shoulder blades to hips, his teeth worrying at Naruto's neck almost too lightly to count as bites, as Sakura straddled his lap and sank down on him with her eyes staring straight into his.

He'd cried a couple times. They hadn't laughed.

Sakura had said "I love you." Sasuke had said "Naruto" like perhaps he meant the same. He'd believed them both.

He loved them too. He loved them.

It was nothing so simple as the easy warmth Iruka offered. Nothing like Jiraiya's pride disguised as bullying. It wasn't even anything like the happy bubbles of his old crush on Sakura herself, or the more confusing antagonistic, mildly obsessive glee in reaction to Sasuke's rare acknowledgement, or that melancholy hope for the two of them to find each other somehow, even if...

It was "mine" and "kill to keep you (alive-safe-with me)" and "anything you ask for, it's yours", and he just wished very hard neither of them would ask him to let them go, because it would tear him in two right down the middle.

Even now it still had him in a strange mood, not negative, but not exactly good or nice. Not quite what he would have called happy. Something he wasn't used to...

The earth felt more solid under his feet. The world was calmer. He didn't need to fight it all so that it would see him; they saw, it was all he needed.

Sakura caught him looking, smiled. He smiled back a bit, stretched his leg under the coffee table to nudge hers.

They had been relocated to a more secure hotel, with two rooms with twin beds (real beds, not too-narrow bunk-torture implements) and a kitchenette, surrounding a tiny living room of sorts. In the living room there was a low table surrounded by cushions. Naruto didn't think any of the three of them had even glanced at the inside of the second bedroom Sakura should have used for the sake of decency. Kakashi hadn't said anything.

(Naruto had the feeling Kakashi had spent the night exiled on the hotel roof pretending not to hear a thing. He was sure later he would laugh. For now he just smiled.)

"Hey. Start your guest list."

Naruto took the sheet of paper from Sasuke, who pretended not to be looking at him. He wrote 'all my friends' and said, "Done!" Sasuke grumbled half-heartedly.

"I need a hard number, idiot. And one that isn't the total population of Konoha."

Sakura chuckled. She was writing her own thing - not a list, but a letter to her parents. 'Hey mom and dad, we need to get married, oh, yesterday, please help. Location, catering, decorations and such? You've got a whole month and a half.' Except, Naruto supposed, better written. (They were gonna owe Sakura's parents until the next century but Naruto hoped quality time with their grandchild would pay some of that back.)

Most efficient use of their month's lag before the third stage, the tournament: training, training, and when Kakashi put his foot down (and he would) take care of anything the Harunos absolutely couldn't. It counted as rest, surely.

Sasuke had started bitching about his political guests under his breath a half-hour ago. It was hilarious. Sakura was still trying to decide what to foist off on her mom and what on Ino, and hoping neither of them would feel slighted.

"May I have your inkpot? Mine's empty."

Sasuke stretched his arm to hand it to Sakura and winced, just a little. Naruto moved behind him on hands and knees, peering down the back of his shirt.

"Huh. Nice sunburn."

Sasuke only threw him a quick glance before he went back to scribbling. "I hate the beach," he muttered. Sakura briefly looked up from her much-struck out letter to chuckle at him.

Naruto lifted the back of Sasuke's shirt to take a look at the rest of his back. The sunburn was confined to his shoulders and a little down his shoulder blades. "Take it off," he asked, reaching for their first-aid kit.

"It's not that bad," Sasuke said, frowning at his list. "... Okita or Sugiaru..."

Naruto sat behind him and tugged, and Sasuke allowed the shirt to come off with barely a token 'you're worrying too much, I'm manlier than that' sigh. Under Naruto's fingers the skin radiated fever-warmth.

"Why the hell do they need to be feuding _now_. Which one?"

Sakura flipped a well-used coin. "Sugiaru."

Chuckling, Naruto got some burn cream and started massaging it in, even though he agreed, Sasuke's back wasn't that bad off. Sasuke probably knew but he let him get away with it. Naruto wondered how long it was going to last, all that 'No, I'm just being nice to Naruto because he needs it and I guess I can grit my teeth and bear the horribleness of - oh, shut up, I wasn't cuddling. I don't need it at all, personally.' Probably not too much longer. Oh well.

"-No, wait, Ino will want to take care of the flower arrangements, but what if it clashes with Mom's decorations..."

Naruto sneaked Sasuke a glance and they both pretended to be very absorbed in whatever they were doing - Sasuke, his list; Naruto, Sasuke's neck.

"How I wish we could just elope."

Neither Naruto nor Sasuke replied, save with groans of mutual dismayed agreement. It wasn't the first time the suggestion had been brought up - by any of them.

But Sasuke couldn't afford to have the validity of his marriage contested. Not when he was about to officially restart the Uchiha. End of discussion.

Sighing, Sakura went to pour herself more tea, but only a few drops dribbled out.

"Don't move, I'm going," Naruto said, pushing himself up off the table before she could. He picked up the pot and went to the sink. Wash, wash. Fill, fill. Place on cooker. Watch as the water heats up, bubbles everywhere. Behind him the room was quiet, silence underlined by the scratches of pencil on paper.

He prepared the tea and turned around. Sakura flicked him a quick smile, Sasuke a 'keeping track of you' glance.

It reminded him of that time they were working on the seal, where he could do nothing but watch and be quiet as they figured things out, but this time around he didn't feel so much like a useless spectator. They had spent the night wrapped around him. If he asked, if he even looked like he was trying not to ask, they'd drop everything right away.

He smiled a little and put the pot down by her hand. He didn't sit back down.

He still had this one thing to take care of.

"I'm going for a walk. Yeah?"

Sakura started to push off the table, a worried look on her face. "Wait, I'll come-"

"Sakura." Resting a hand on Sakura's forearm to stop her, Sasuke watched him. Naruto smiled down at them both, a little apologetic.

"I'll be back soon. Write your letter, okay? Tell your parents I said hi."

He gave them a little wave and left. He walked, out of the building, and down the street, and right to the hospital.

Kakashi-sensei had fallen into step with him at some point, probably following from right when he left the building and drifting closer so that he hadn't even tripped Naruto's awareness. Hands in his pockets, Naruto paused on the hospital steps, waiting for advice, a rebuttal, another order. Kakashi just pushed the door and held it open for him.

"Room 209," he said.

Naruto opened his mouth, sneaked him a glance. Stared straight ahead, squaring his shoulders.

"Thanks, Sensei."

He walked in. Kakashi didn't follow. One flight of stairs, two. He didn't let himself slow down. His fists were clenched; he made a conscious effort to relax them, pretending they weren't shaking a little.

He was still a dozen feet away from his goal when the door to room 209 opened, startling him into stopping. A girl walked out of the hospital room - twelve or thirteen year old, sleek black hair in a jaw-length cut.

The second she saw him she went from serious and a little stern to battle-ready, flicking kunai from her sleeves to her hands in a move that looked entirely instinctive.

"Back off!" she shouted at him, all bristled and angry.

She was terrified. Naruto wanted to throw up.

"W-what are you waiting for? Just go already!"

Naruto winced. "Listen, I..."

"Who's that?"

They both froze. The voice coming from the room was a boy's, young and high, wheezy and weak. Curious anyway.

"No one," the girl snapped back through the half-open door. "Go back to sleep."

"No really, who is it?"

She glared stonily at Naruto, planting herself firmly in front of the door so he'd have no way to go in but through her. "No one you want to see."

There was a long pause.

"... Oh."

Naruto waited. If the kid told her not to let him in, he'd... well. There was nothing he could do. He told himself at least he would have tried, and that would make a difference, right?

Right?

"... Mikuri..."

The brunette stiffened.

"Let him in, please."

She opened her mouth to protest, but she already looked like she knew it would be useless. She closed her mouth without talking, glaring murder at Naruto, and then she turned on her heel and stalked in the room first. Naruto hung his head, took a deep, bracing breath, and walked to the door, counting every step. The kid's voice had been shaking.

He came in to see the little redhead attempting to push himself up his pillows on trembling arms; his other teammate had a hand on his shoulder and was attempting to keep him still, though when he saw Naruto he froze, the blood draining from his face.

The redhead looked even smaller in that adult-sized bed, the bandages swallowing his whole body from chest to hips. He looked like he should have been bronzed by the sun but his skin was sallow from massive blood loss. Naruto stayed by the door, hand gripping the doorjamb.

"Um."

The kid's voice was weak, there were dark circles under his eyes. He probably shouldn't have been awake. He looked nervous, too, as he stared back at Naruto. The girl - Mikuri? - was standing guard by the bed, eyes dark with threats; the other boy was frozen on the spot.

"I'm so sorry." It just blurted out, past the knot in his throat. Seeing him like that, Naruto wanted to cry. He'd done that to him, hurt him and scared him and broke that unconscious trust, that innocence. "I'm _so sorry_. It's alright - if you never forgive me, it's alright. I don't deserve-"

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. He bit his lip, closed his eyes. Still no response. That was pretty clear. He hadn't expected any better, had he? It was the kid's right anyway.

"...I just wanted to say that. I'll leave you alone now. I promise. I'll keep away from-"

"I want a can of soda."

Naruto popped an eye open and stared at him, incredulous. "... Whuh?"

The redhead was still pale and shaky, but there was a smile now on his pointy little face. "Get me a can of soda. The green and blue ones. Yeah? 'cause we don't have them at home and they're really great."

Naruto stared some more, and stared, and - "Heh. Heheh." He wiped his eyes with his forearm and laughed, relief bubbling up unstoppable. The kid's teammates were staring at him and boggling but he couldn't possibly have cared any less. "Alright. Anything you want. In the distributors?" The girl nodded, bemused, almost against her will. "I'll be right back!"

A nurse yelled at him not to run in the corridor as he zipped past. He just burst out laughing.

"Sorry!" he called back, not sorry at all, and skidded to a halt in front of the first distributor he found. There he discovered a little problem. Namely that in leaving the hotel so suddenly on his quest he'd forgotten his wallet.

"Here," said a Konoha ANBU, holding out a hand full of change. The rest of him was still melted into the wall. Any other day Naruto would have gasped or yelled 'show-off!' and been very annoyed he'd been stalked by even more guys than just Kakashi-sensei. He beamed at the masked face and snatched up the change to feed the machine instead.

"Thanks, you're awesome. I'll pay you back!"

The ANBU chuckled, the sound muffled by the porcelain, and melted away again. Naruto snatched the three cans he'd gotten and raced back with his armful, waving. On the way back he almost knocked down the same nurse. She threw a bedpan at him.

Life was beautiful.

"Tadah!"

They'd obviously been discussing him; the girl and the glasses-wearing boy were huddled together and scowling. The redhead blew a messy lock of hair away from his nose and his lips twitched in uncontrollable amusement.

"Hey."

"Hey." Naruto stepped forward slowly and paused out of arm's reach of the bed, aware of his teammates' nervousness. "Delivery for you."

"It's gonna be hard to get it from here," the kid commented, scratching his chin as he eyed him askance.

"Yeah, I wasn't gonna throw it," Naruto said, voice growing quieter, gentler.

He was such a _brave _boy. Naruto wanted to throw an arm around his shoulders and ruffle his hair and teach him all his techniques. He pictured Sasuke and Sakura's faces. 'Hey, he followed me home, can I keep him?' But the kid was still nervous despite his bravado, and it hurt every time Naruto noticed a moment of hesitation, a flicker of wariness.

But they could fix it, he knew that now.

He stepped up to the bed, handed him a can, looked at the other two. "Want some?"

The glasses-wearing boy looked purely appalled. The girl glared.

"Mmmmmmh, so good!" the redhead said, cradling his can in both hands, and sneaked them a little look to see if his display had helped. The girl grumbled and snatched a can from Naruto's hands.

"Sure you don't want it?"

Glasses-boy seemed to be attempting the ANBU's wall-melting trick. "N-no, t-t-thank you."

"Well." He turned back to the redhead. "Guess that means you get to keep it for later."

"He's already pushing it by having one," Mikuri said. "The doctor won't be happy."

"He's never happy unless he's making me unhappy anyway," the redhead protested, looking clearly miserable. The girl grumbled under her breath again, surrendering to his puppy eyes. Naruto tried not to laugh.

"Um... You can sit down?"

Naruto grabbed a stool and sat, feet tangling immediately in the wooden legs, nervously. "Er. My name's Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto. Yours?"

"Oh right. Um. Yamagi Yakitaro. But you can call me Taro. Or Yaki. Or whatever. It's kind of a mouthful."

Naruto gave a tentative grin. "Yeah? One of my buddies is named Sarutobi Konohamaru, I don't think you can complain."

"Whoa, that _is_ a mouthful."

They stared at each other, awkward conversation halted. Yakitaro's lips twitched, and then he smiled at Naruto, hesitant and nervous and utterly sincere.

Naruto grinned back, and pretended his eyes weren't shining with tears.

"So," the girl said, breaking a long silence with her acidic question. "You're classified? How's that working out for you?"

Naruto blinked. "I am? - oh right, I guess I'd be." He scratched his head as he thought about how to explain it. "Hey, ANBU-guy? Can I tell them?"

The kids stared at him as if he was crazy - up until the wall blurred and a masked head popped out. "Naruto-kun..." the masked man said with a long-suffering sigh.

Naruto grinned. "Can I tell them or not?" He turned to the kids. "It's okay, he's just here to keep an eye on me so I don't get kidnapped or something, I think. He's a good guy."

"You know him?" Yakitaro asked, eyes a little wide.

"Uh. Well. Actually we just met. But he's cool, guaranteed."

The ANBU shook his head and sighed again before nodding to Naruto. "The law back home was set up to protect you, and their superiors have already been informed of your identity. What you tell them is your decision." His masked face turned back to the bed and he nodded to the little redhead. "Best wishes."

He melted away again.

"Alright then." The trio were still blinking at the wall. Such cute kids. Naruto smiled at them, and then sobered up. "The story starts about eighteen years ago, when a huge monster was attacking the Fire Country..."

* * *

When he walked out of the hospital room, he found Sasuke and Sakura sitting on a bench at the end of the corridor. Sakura's head shot up, and Sasuke's back stiffened, both scanning his face, his body language, ready to jump in on his behalf.

It hadn't been a hour since he left the hotel. They'd tracked him down anyway.

He grinned at them extra-wide and hugged Sakura when she got up to meet him, tight and fierce; and he held out his hand to pull Sasuke to his feet, and pulled him right into the hug instead. Sasuke growled and vaguely tried to shrug him off.

"Ahem," said Kakashi, standing against the wall right past the corner with his little book out. "We are in public, you realize."

Naruto grinned an evil grin that made Sakura open her eyes wide and Sasuke stop his half-hearted attempts at leaning away, and he dragged the two of them right up to their teacher to pounce on him.

He bet today they could guilt him into paying for lunch, for once.

* * *

Long story short; they couldn't.

* * *

"Hm."

Naruto had expected a lot of things when he went to see Gaara next. That Gaara's guards wouldn't let him in, or make him wait - but they had immediately waved him through on sight. That Gaara would greet him with a 'nice to see you' smile (not very likely), or with a 'why are you here' frown (much more likely), or that total absence of expression that even Sasuke didn't match (yeah, betting on that one.)

"Uh, Gaara? You're a bit close."

Gaara released his chin and leaned back, so that they weren't nose to nose anymore. Naruto gave a brief, nervous laugh, but his smile fell almost immediately. He couldn't even pretend Gaara had been looking at anything but his pupils.

"Definitive, then?"

Naruto shrugged, like he didn't care. "Looks like. Listen, I wanted to..."

He'd wanted lots of things, some of them excuses and some not, but Gaara had thrown him off his stride and now he wasn't sure where to start. He stood there in Gaara's office, trying to sort it out.

"You seem to feel better. I'm glad."

"Ah - yeah. Me too. I mean - I'm not glad I'm feeling better - wait, I am glad, but I meant, I'm glad _you _are. Uh. Are you?" Naruto frowned, suddenly suspicious.

Gaara blinked, and then gave him a faint smile. "It was mostly chakra drain. I'm fine."

"You sure? No..." He fell silent, not sure that asking about nightmares would be polite. Actually it might get pretty damn rude. Even though he... "Consequences?"

"We just doubled my usual security detail. Naruto?"

"Uh. Yes?"

"Did you want something?"

Naruto harrumphed and crossed his arms defensively. "What, I can't drop by because we're buddies and I was-" okay, no, worried was a bit embarrassing, even if it was true- "er, wondering how you were doing?"

Gaara crossed his arms in turn and leaned back against his desk, and kept staring wordlessly at him.

He was pretty good at it, Naruto had to admit.

He sighed and sat beside Gaara on the edge of his desk. That placed his butt in much-too-close proximity to a crap-ton of top-secret documents, but Gaara didn't say anything about it, or even frown a bit.

"They're going to come back," Naruto said quietly. "Aren't they?"

Gaara nodded slowly, eyes weirdly subdued. "Not here, we don't think. There's a small risk at the tournament. A slightly bigger one on the way back. After that..." He shook his head, straightened up slightly, looked at Naruto straight-on. "You were mostly a target of opportunity. The risk isn't as high for you."

"You think that's reassuring?" Naruto retorted by reflex, and swallowed bile at the thought that it was. Not for himself but - Sakura-chan, Sasuke. Kakashi-sensei. They'd be in the blast radius too. "I'm not gonna be happier if it lands on you!"

Gaara blinked, and gave him a small, slow-blooming smile. Naruto reddened and looked away, grumbling under his breath.

"... Do you know any of the others?" he asked, voice quiet. "Did you ever meet...?"

Gaara shook his head no. "Not in person, no. I have files, reports."

"Can I," Naruto started to say, and thought it was probably a little treasonous, but Gaara was the freaking Kazekage, so whatever, "Can I see them?"

Gaara was frowning again. He didn't ask why Naruto would want to, though. He probably got it. That need to know, _hey, you're like me_. They were such a small group, those who could say that.

_Hey, you got hunted down and killed because you were like me._

"I haven't had news for a while," Gaara warned as he pushed off his desk and went to a file cabinet behind it. "Most of the survivors are in hiding."

Survivors, meaning there were dead ones. Naruto flinched, though he'd expected as much.

"The ones who died first," he asked. "Please."

Gaara stared at him for a second, likely measuring how serious he was about it, and opened a folder. "Yagura and the Three-Tails. His death unbalanced the Daimyo and the Village Hidden in the Mist both, which is the reason they asked to join in on our alliance and we are having the Chuunin Exam here today." A second folder. "Han, Five-Tails; Roushi, Four-Tails, both from Rock Village."

Yagura looked like a sickly pretty-boy, thin like a stick and sad-eyed. Han only showed his eyes, the rest of him armored all over. Roushi was an old man; Naruto had never really imagined himself getting that old. Roushi wasn't going to get any older, now.

"The ones we aren't sure about are the Six and Seven tails. They didn't belong to any village and no one really knows if they were found. No pictures."

So for all they knew, they were dead as well - or no, no, they must have been used to living without a village (how lonely that must have been) and they were both just fine.

"And both from the Village Hidden in the Clouds, Yugito Nii and Killerbee, Two-Tails and Eight-Tails respectively." Gaara's voice gentled imperceptibly. "Who are officially in hiding. Killerbee is the little brother of the Raikage, and he and Yugito grew up as comrades, so the Raikage takes their protection very seriously."

Naruto blinked, a bit fast. "... That's - that's good. Must have been nice. I mean, to grow up there." Family that cared. And someone like him. Must have been nice. Almost normal.

He wouldn't have had Konoha or his team if he'd been born elsewhere, though, so hey, it balanced out.

"And then there's me, who cannot hide and who is easily found, and you."

"I don't _want_ to!" Naruto protested at Gaara's expectant look.

"And the Hokage knows that, but some people still think she should make you."

Naruto growled. "Well, I'm glad she knows better."

"Does she? There are rumors that she refused to act on the intel because it came from her old teammate."

Naruto gave him a baffled look, a little insulted on the old hag's behalf. "Uh, what?"

"Orochimaru," Gaara explained patiently. "My analysts believe he knew where to find us all. He must have had a failsafe set up, that sent warnings out to the Jinchuuriki in case he was killed, and was using it as insurance to dissuade the Akatsuki from doing just that. But apparently they killed him anyway, and here we are." He tilted his head. "Do you think she would have ignored a warning from him?"

"I don't think she'd have trusted him to say the sky was blue," Naruto replied slowly, mind reeling just a bit. It almost sounded like the old snake bastard had done a good deed. Hah. Very much accidentally, there. What the hell. "But - she'd have checked anyway. In case it was true. Because it was about me, and the village."

"Hm."

Gaara stepped around the desk, leaned against the desk in his previous spot next to Naruto. Neither one said a thing for a minute. Naruto was thinking about the other Jinchuuriki.

He wanted to go and save them, but he was too weak for that. It wouldn't have stopped him from trying before. It hurt, that it was stopping him now. But he was too weak to protect his teammates. He'd be nothing but a burden, and then in quick order someone in need of rescue as well.

"I hate that," he whispered. Gaara inclined his head toward him a little. "Being too weak to stop them. To save-"

"Mmh." Another pause. "I don't suppose it would help to tell you that you can't take responsibility for the world."

"It's not the world!" Naruto protested. "It's - but it doesn't matter anyway because I _can't_ because I _suck_." He kicked at the floor, frustrated.

Gaara fixed him with an unimpressed stare. "So fix it."

"I'm _trying_!" Naruto retorted with a frustrated whine. "Kakashi-sensei won't let us train more than a couple _hours _a day!"

"So make those hours more efficient." He stared at Naruto, eyes narrowing. "You haven't been working on your demon chakra Rasengan."

Naruto gaped at him. "How do you know that? Are you - are you _spying _on me?"

"Of course," Gaara said, and frowned disapprovingly. Naruto spluttered. "Enough to know you haven't touched your demon chakra once since the attack."

With a single push Naruto was off the desk and pacing across the office, furious all over again. "Are you kidding me? Are you - I'm never using that - I don't _want _to! Didn't your spies tell you what he did?"

He wished he could say he was never using Kyuubi's chakra ever again, but he knew that wasn't possible, that he would have to. But it made him feel dirty.

"I just saw the hospital reports. What _did _he do?"

The laugh that came out of Naruto's throat didn't sound like his own, sounded angry and a little deranged. Like Kyuubi's laughter mixed with his own. "Oh, nothing - beat up and tried to _rape_ Sakura-chan, broke her arm with his - _my _- fucking _teeth_, savaged a couple guys - one of them died later - stabbed a - a _kid_, he wasn't a threat, Kyuubi fucking knew he wasn't a threat and he still went and -"

Coming to a stop in the middle of the room, he fell silent, took in a shuddering breath, and another. Gaara watched expressionless from the desk, absently arranging a pile of papers that Naruto's abrupt departure from his seat had shaken loose.

"So basically he acted like a demon beast."

Naruto flinched.

"And you were surprised." Gaara's voice was so dispassionate by then that Naruto could barely believe it came from a living being.

"I thought we were starting to get along! We had compromises - we talked sometimes - but he, he would rather take advantage and go ravaging the countryside the second my back is turned-"

"You trusted him, and now you feel betrayed."

"... Yeah, that was kinda stupid, okay, I _know_." Naruto turned away, arms crossed tight across his belly. It really was. He knew what Kyuubi _was_, he'd always known. He'd just... what, forgotten? Started thinking he was like, like _Sasuke_, that his 'I want to eat this person's face!' was just special Kyuubi-talk that you could translate into civilized speech, because he didn't really _mean _it? "Anyway he won't make a fool of me twice. I don't need to talk to him to take his chakra, so I hope he has fun alone in his cage because he's never coming out or seeing me ever again."

Behind him, Gaara sighed. "Voice of experience... That never works." He sounded a little sad; Naruto turned around, his anger forgotten.

"Uh, Gaara? Are you-"

"Granted, my seal and yours are vastly different."

Yeah, Naruto's was better, if by better it meant Kyuubi wasn't leaking in all over the place and making him psychotic.

He just leaked in in more subtle ways, ways that Naruto didn't always catch. Like the growling and the dreams and how he liked red meat more and more these days. Like the sense of smell. Or his eyes, which were hardly subtle at all anymore.

"... How did you, with Shuukaku... I mean, back when we first met, he was kinda..."

"Not looking for a compromise?" Gaara shrugged it off. "We've come to an agreement. He doesn't desire to be yanked out and harvested by Akatsuki any more than I do. It's not a peace treaty so much as armed truce."

Naruto growled under his breath, and then stopped himself; it made a strangled, weird little noise. He never used to _growl_, damn it. "Yeah, well, Kyuubi's an arrogant bastard. He'd be all 'what do I care, let them yank me out so I can _eat them. _Bwahaha'."

"I seem to remember," Gaara _mused_, the bastard, "someone who once told me that he would never give up, it was his ninja way. "

It wasn't really a slap in the face, more like one of Sakura's slaps to the back of his head, Naruto you _idiot_. It still stung. He threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "... Argh! You - No fair quoting me at me!" Aw hell, and now he was whining. He was totally whining. Argh, and another argh! "He's been evil for centuries! I've been alive for eighteen years!"

"So, you think you can't break him of it."

Naruto sputtered. "Well, you don't think you can break Shuukaku of it either!"

"No, I don't," Gaara replied, patient, almost gentle, "but I'm not you."

Naruto's cheeks started heating up. "...Oh."

"Am I wrong?"

Still flustered, Naruto was saved from having to answer by a knock on the door. "Kazekage-sama?"

Gaara's brow furrowed.

"I have to take care of this," he said, with obvious reluctance. Naruto realized that he'd no doubt asked not to be disturbed while Naruto was there unless it was necessary, and felt even more embarrassed. Touched, too, and glad, and like he was being a bit childish. Gaara had gotten so mature, and half the time Naruto himself felt like he was still a teenager, not really an adult yet. Not yet old enough to become Hokage.

"Alright, I'll go. See you later." With his hand on the door handle he turned and gave Gaara a slightly rueful grin. "I'll try," he promised, and then he walked out of the room.

Behind him he could hear Gaara make a "Hm" - acknowledgement, amusement or both - and greet his visitor, the words muffled by the closing door. Alright, time to go back to the hotel.

* * *

He gave it a try later that night, staring at the ceiling as Sasuke and Sakura slept beside him. He timed himself on their breath, an anchor to meditate by.

The rush of burning hate that greeted him would have singed his eyebrows if it had been anywhere but outside his head. Even by Kyuubi standards it was violent, swallowed everything else. The only meaning he could get apart from that sheer, torturing need to destroy him down to the marrow of his bones was _'out, out, __**out**__'_.

"... Okay, whatever," Naruto muttered, "fuck you right back." He turned onto his side and cuddled up to Sasuke, who muttered in his sleep and pushed a pointy elbow in Naruto's stomach.

He wasn't giving up. He'd try another day. A day when he started to forget how much he hated the fox right back.

* * *

"Who the hell washedthis top? It doesn't _fit _anymore!"

Naruto sat up, bleary-eyed and not quite awake yet. "Ngh. Sakura-chan, 's early," he complained. The bedroom was gray with muted dawn light; he could have slept another hour or three. (He could have forced himself up too, but being on light duty and training restrictions was just that boring.)

A pillow landed on his face. He let himself fall back with the light impact, listened to her pace around the small bedroom, tossing the content of her bag all over the foot of the bed.

"Damn it, it's my last clean top-"

"_Sakura_," said Sasuke from the doorway, in such a peculiar tone that Naruto immediately pushed the pillow off his face to squint at her.

She was still wearing the top, zipper half-done. Naruto would have been happy to see the upper half open - a plunging neckline was a nice sight to wake up to.

It was the other way around - the cloth covered her chest like usual, started straining toward her waist, and then fell open from bellybutton to panties.

"... What?" she asked, frowning in confusion.

Naruto somehow teleported from under the blankets to the edge of the bed. His hands pushed up the bottom halves of her top.

He stared for a few seconds. Then he made an embarrassingly high-pitched noise and wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged, but not too tight, even though he really wanted to.

"Naruto! What the hell-"

Naruto rubbed his cheek against her belly and made a strangled little noise of happiness. Behind him Sasuke sighed like he was trying not to laugh.

"Your other shirts are baggier, aren't they?" Sasuke asked dryly.

"Well - yes, but -"

"And you always get dressed in the dark."

"It's that or getting dressed in the common room! Where Kakashi-sensei can walk in on - Naruto, why are you _fondling_ me?"

Naruto tilted his head back and beamed at her. She stared down, utterly baffled.

"Baby bulge, baby bulge, baby in your tummy~"

"... Are you kidding me?"

Sakura put her hand on his forehead and pushed him back; Naruto obligingly loosened his hold, though he left a hand on her hip. She unzipped the rest of the top, letting it fall open, and looked down. Blinked. Stared.

"Are you _kidding _me? That's, I was - last week it didn't even - what? Last week I needed to lay down if I wanted to see anything - how, five days ago - it can't just _appear _like that!"

"Apparently it can," Sasuke replied just as dryly, and took a cautious step toward them.

Naruto leaned and almost fell out of bed to catch his wrist, and dragged him the rest of the way there. "Feel, feel, isn't it awesome!"

Sakura seemed torn, incredulous and flustered; but in the end she heaved a loud sigh and gave up. She dropped her shirt on the bed, and her hand slipped under Sasuke's hand, to feel the lower curve of her belly. It wasn't huge - would have looked like a bit of flab if she'd been the flabby type, but she really wasn't.

Naruto had known for so long that there was a baby in there, he could _smell _the way her scent had changed, all full and spicy and promising, he'd touched her belly and felt the tautness that wasn't merely strong abdominal muscles, but _seeing _it, that was different.

There was barely enough space for all three of their hands on it. He couldn't stop grinning.

"You really didn't notice?" Sasuke asked with a touch of disbelief, as his thumb rubbed a sneaky little circle against her bellybutton. "Didn't... _feel_ anything?"

"Not really," Sakura muttered, embarrassed. "If I had to get a measuring tape every time I feel bloated..."

Naruto rested his cheek against the curve of her breast. Usually he'd be trying to stare right through her bra but right now he couldn't get his eyes away from her belly.

"Hey, you three! Are you ready to... go yeeet... _I'll be right back_."

Kakashi turned on his heel and started for the open door. Naruto leapt out of bed after him and grabbed the back of his shirt. "Sensei! Touch, touch!"

Kakashi stubbornly refused to turn around, a hand raised to pinch the bridge of his nose, his eye closed. Behind them Sakura was yelping something and Sasuke sighing loudly, again. Naruto turned his head to blink his confusion at them, and...

... Oops. Almost-naked students sorta-groping each other. Aheh. Okay, maybe that explained Kakashi's 'to any god listening, I'd appreciate if you would smite me down right now' face.

"Sorry," he said, laughing nervously, and let go.

Sasuke pulled off his shirt and handed it to Sakura, who hurriedly put it on. Naruto felt a little pinch of jealousy. He should have thought of that first - then again, since he slept shirtless the only shirt of his in their immediate vicinity was his old dirty one from yesterday and, uh, the day before, which he'd dropped on the floor, and she wasn't gonna want to wear _that_.

She yanked the sleeveless, baggy shirt down to her thighs and laughed a little, nervously. "You can turn around, Sensei."

Kakashi didn't, though he did incline his head toward them in acknowledgement. "I think I'll wait outside. And Naruto, get dressed."

Grumbling, Naruto went to put on pants and a t-shirt over his boxers. Sasuke put another shirt on and waited by the door, watching them. Sakura put on biker shorts, grimacing a little when she had to tug on the waistband to get it where it should be. "Okay, if it keeps digging in like that it's going to get distracting," she muttered. Naruto tried not to grin; he could tell she found it frustrating, but _baby bulge_.

He burst out of the bedroom first, and bounced his way to Kakashi, who was leaning against the edge of the window and looking long-suffering and kinda headachy.

"Sensei, sensei, _baby bulge_!"

"Ah." Kakashi looked at Sakura, who had just emerged. In the lit room it was impossible to miss how hard she was blushing. Adorableness. "...Congratulations?"

Sakura mumbled something that might have been a thank you, and burrowed the lower half of her face in the high collar of Sasuke's shirt.

"Will you be able to train in that?" Kakashi asked after a slightly too-long, awkward second.

"Um. For today, I guess - and my other tops are a bit looser..."

"That'll only delay the issue by a few days."

Naruto grinned, even though Sakura glared at him for it. More real estate for his hands! He couldn't wait.

Kakashi let out a little sigh. "Well. Since I doubt you planned for that, I suppose we can allot some money from the month's budget to new clothes."

Sakura squealed. "Yes! Water Country fashion!" She bounced on her toes, as if about to pounce on their teacher and hug him. Naruto was sure he was really thankful when she stopped herself and made do with a blinding grin.

"We'll have to make it up somewhere else," he warned, eyeing Sakura warily. "No more fast food. Home cooked stuff only."

Sasuke only shrugged; he liked home-cooked stuff better anyway, and Sakura didn't seem to care, too busy muttering something that sounded like 'hah, take that, Ino'. Naruto laughed at her a bit, and then - oh. "That doesn't mean ramen ... does it?"

"It's ramen or Sakura going shirtless."

"I don't mind _that_!" Naruto retorted, and drew himself up.

"_I_ do," Sasuke replied, throwing him a sidelong glare. And, well, okay, their Sakura naked for other people to ogle... but still!

Sakura huffed and glared at them both, though at Naruto more. She burrowed in Sasuke's collar some more, as if she had the vague thought that Naruto might attempt to take it off her. "_Hey_. It's not up for debate."

"Okay... Not in public, but in the bedroom?"

"Will you stop being a pervert for two seconds?"

"I'm not being a pervert! It's - dude, _baby bulge_! It's not perverted! It's just - Sasuke, you get it, right?" He turned a pleading look on his teammate. Sasuke sniffed and looked away, the traitor. "Oi, bastard-"

"You know, I've noticed your arm strength could be better," Kakashi mused. "All three of you."

"... Huh?"

He rubbed his chin through his mask, smiled genially. "I think we'll go to the training grounds walking on our hands today."

Naruto and Sakura spluttered; and if Uchihas spluttered Sasuke would have too.

"And by 'we' of course I mean you guys. Hop to it, hop to it!"

"But that's - down the _street_?" Sakura protested, blushing.

"You're right, it'll be a better workout across rooftops." He waved them toward the door. Team Seven shared a loud sigh and collectively gave in.

This being a ninja outpost, rooftops were pretty much just as busy as the streets, on top of being, well, rooftops. As in, not often flat, and full of story-high, street-wide gaps. When he thought about it, Naruto didn't actually mind. It would be kinda funny. Of course, also potentially very embarrassing.

... then again, that would mean an easily provoked Sasuke for that extra bit of spice in their spars, and two flushed lovers with their hair in disarray. Hmm.

"Gai will be delighted to know you like his training methods so much," Sasuke said like a threat as he stalked by their teacher and out of the suite into the hotel corridor.

Kakashi smiled back a 'nice bit of blackmail, kid'. "He will, won't he. We might as well apply ourselves and start right now to make him truly proud. Go ahead, Sasuke."

Naruto was feeling charitable, so he swung onto his hands a half-second behind him, so Sasuke wouldn't have to be upside down in public all alone. It was kinda funny, the way Sasuke's bangs were swept up, when the back of his hair barely budged. With a long sigh Sakura joined them, frowning a little as she shifted from hand to hand, testing the arm that had been broken. Naruto could only see the back of her head; her back was turned toward Sasuke and him, but she didn't say anything about it, so he concluded that it worked well enough. The bone _was _supposed to be healed by now, anyway, and, after the cast, a bout of arm strength exercise couldn't hurt.

Kakashi locked the door and turned to face them. "Don't make such faces, children. This is more than just an exercise, it's also good for team-building!"

"Through shared public embarrassment?" Sasuke retorted.

"Yeah, yeah! You're just being a sadist for your own personal amusement, sensei."

"Don't be silly, Naruto. A good ninja knows how to strike several targets with one throw."

Naruto thought about pointing out that they handled the bonding part just fine on their own. Then again, seeing them bonding a bit too much was what had prompted Kakashi's current bout of sadism. ... then again, Kakashi might make another funny face. He opened his mouth.

"Hm, I wonder how far you'd get walking on only two fingers."

Naruto closed his mouth.

"Onward, children. Oh, and Sakura?"

Sakura growled halfheartedly under her breath and craned her neck to look at him. "Yes?"

"Tuck your shirt in."

Naruto spent the rest of the trip to the trying to lag behind enough to catch a glimpse of her stomach. Sasuke wouldn't admit afterwards that he'd only won their spar because of the crick in Naruto's neck.


	24. TW3 chapter 11

**Chapter 11 **

**(Sakura)**

"Sixteen participants," Kakashi had told them, one week exactly before the start of the tournament. "The odds of two of you meeting in the first round are slightly under thirty percent."

Of course Sakura had calculated that one already. She hadn't liked the results much.

"Assuming you all meet strangers in the first round, and you all win... The odds rise to forty-three percent in your second match. If you get as far as your third match you _will_ have to fight a teammate." Kakashi had given them a long, sober look. "I think you'll all agree with me that not taking those matches seriously would be somewhat insulting."

By which, she knew, he meant matches against her, because Naruto and Sasuke always fought each other all-out.

She was still annoyed at Naruto for putting on his martyr face before he agreed with their teacher. Kind of made her wish she'd get to fight him at some point, but...

She'd made progress with her speed and strength during the month, come up with strategies to use against her teammates' superior ones. She hadn't come up with a miracle.

_Not Naruto or Sasuke in the first round_, she prayed as she stepped out of the lineup to draw her number. _That's all I ask, not Naruto or Sasuke_. The rules of the tournament were the same as back home; winning all your fights didn't mean you were automatically a chuunin. Chuunin was a command rank, if the lowest one; having a good head for tactics, knowing how to use everything you had on hand, and when to cut your losses, also counted for a lot. She wanted at least one chance to impress the judges.

Huh. Number seven. She smiled to herself as she handed the engraved stick to the jounin in charge and he wrote down her name on the big board. It didn't tell her whether she would fight her teammates - in Water Country they still used the traditional iroha chart, and if you went by that order Haruno came long before either Uchiha or Uzumaki - but it made her feel a little lucky anyway.

When she turned around to regain her place in the line of waiting contestants she had two seconds to scan them all again.

Three of them she already knew; the rest she hadn't noticed before, but then again they hadn't met many people in the wilderness during the second stage, apart from that annoying kunoichi trio and the people Kyuubi had savaged, and the waiting area for the first stage with the cave and the boulder test had been packed.

Yamanaka Inoru was a bratty little newcomer with a single special technique to his name, and one that was made more for spying than all-out combat; he'd likely gone as far as he could get this year, Ino's efforts to train him up notwithstanding. Hinata's little sister might go farther, for all that she was the same age of barely thirteen, because she would see attacks coming and her Gentle Palm would compensate for her lack of mass and reach.

Sakura had no idea how far Zenko would get.

She still wanted a chance to plant a fist in her face.

Zenko hadn't thrown Naruto a single glance; from the way her eyes glided past him when they were led out into the arena he might as well have been part of the scenery. But the constant background hum of banked killing intent set Sakura's teeth on edge.

She took her place in the line again, matched names with faces and body types and visible weapons. She could tell that a lot of other countries had done what Konoha had with them, if inadvertently; kept teams in reserve especially for this, so they'd have a better chance. No village wanted to make a poor showing of it when it was the first year Mist had ever condescended to participate.

"Psst, Sakura-chan."

Sakura's eye twitched; she kept staring ahead. They were under the eyes and intense scrutiny of about five hundred people, up in the stands; family, teachers, local Mist nin... and three Kages and several Daimyos. She couldn't get away with kicking his leg.

"Sakura-chan!"

"_What_," she whispered back. Or growled, either or.

"That chick looks kinda familiar. Where do we know her from?"

Blinking, she looked at the girl now drawing her own lot. About fourteen or fifteen, with short, messy, _electric blue _hair and a seal (maybe just a tattoo, who knew) dark on her skin, running from her cheek down into her collar, to reappear at her hip. She wasn't exactly low-key; Sakura was sure she would have remembered someone like that...

And then the girl turned to go back to her spot, and caught her looking, and _blushed_. Lightly, but that was unmistakably a blush, what on Earth...

And then she leered at Sakura, blue eyebrows wagging.

"... We don't know her at all and shut up Naruto."

"Sakura-chan? You're all red."

"Shut. _Up_. _Naruto_."

Oh hell, she remembered her now. That was the girl who'd caught Naruto prancing out of Sakura's shower stall in girl shape.

"You sure? Because-"

"Naruto so help me-"

Sasuke's simple "_Hey_" brought them both to a guilty quiet. The murmurs of the crowd hid quite a bit down there, but she was pretty sure their immediate neighbors would have no problem overhearing them, and good job looking scary there. This really wasn't the impression they wanted to project.

"Uchiha Sasuke," called the jounin in charge, giving them a narrow-eyed warning look.

She watched Sasuke leave the lineup, his back, the line of his shoulders. He'd been quiet, this last week, away from the hotel a lot - practicing that one secret trick Kakashi had insisted they each come up with to diversify their arsenal against each other, she'd assumed, but even now he was still quiet.

She was sure no one but her had noticed. He wasn't visibly brooding, or scowling more than usual, or snapping all that often. He still flung sarcasm at Naruto when Naruto left him an obvious opening, but... She wasn't sure what to make of it.

When the jounin in charge wrote down his name on the board she forgot about it a little. Brain buzzing, the hair on her arms prickled up, she waited blankly as Naruto trudged up in turn and drew his own lot.

Looked like she would get her wish, and a little more; the gods were merciful. Two matches to impress the judges.

And then on her third match she would come up against Sasuke.

* * *

**(Sasuke)**

The first match didn't last five minutes. Mist guy against Lightning guy, Lightning guy much more powerful, hence cocky, and unblooded yet, hence unwilling to just finish things decisively.

What was funny was that Sasuke could tell Mist guy's counterattack had been restrained, as much as it had looked like a total 'I need to kill him before he gets around to beating me down so much I can't get back up'; Lightning guy's legs and arms might be a mess of broken bones and it was going to take him months to even walk again, but no major artery had been shredded so he would die before the medic-nins could even rush in the arena.

And now it was his turn.

He wasn't even looking forward to it much, either this match or the next with the Mist-nin - Sasuke _was_ ruthless enough to get rid of him fast and hard. He _really_ wasn't looking forward to the match against Sakura. She would take it seriously - with all the seriousness of their last real fight, and all the resourcefulness it brought up (just maybe less grim desperation) - so he would, too. He knew (remembered) how much he hated it when he was coddled in a fight, even when hopelessly outclassed; he wasn't going to do that to her, insult her like that.

At least after that he'd go either against Naruto or against someone who had beaten Naruto (improbable at that sounded), so maybe the finale would be interesting. The rest... god, he was so _done_ with this country.

"From the Leaf, Hyuuga Hanabi versus Uchiha Sasuke!"

"Man," said Naruto, standing behind him in the access tunnel, as they watched the girl stalk out ahead. "I know she's a brat but _ouch_."

Sakura sighed from his other side. "Who knows, the Gentle Fist is hard to deal with. Anyway, Sasuke - she's a Leaf nin as well, so..."

"She's Hinata's little sister!" Naruto corrected her, joking but with a hint of real worry in his voice. "I really don't want to make Hinata cry."

"_You_ won't," Sasuke replied, irritated for some obscure reason. 'Naruto is an idiot' covered it pretty well, though. He followed Hanabi out into the arena.

Thirteen year old. Not short for her age, but not tall either; Sasuke had the advantage of reach. Still skinny, but the Gentle Fist didn't rely on superior mass. Likely very limber. Hair pulled back in a tight tie; difficult to grab, not the brazen challenge of Neji's hair or Hinata's carelessness.

He gave the arena a quick scan, as he waited for the referee to join them. The ground was sloped, with boulders here and there, a few tall as he was, and a pond like a rough crescent moon along the wall, damp muddy ground around it. A couple bushes. No trees.

Cover was useless against a Hyuuga. Mud to mess with their footing, maybe not. He could see the girl throw a sharp glance that way, her brow furrow deeper. He threw it another furtive look himself; if she caught it and got fixated on that strategy it would only make slipping in something else easier.

"Start!"

He couldn't afford to go through the tournament with damage to his chakra coils, but _'she's a Leaf nin as well,_' Sakura had reminded him; he could hear the unsaid things underneath. It'd be bad form to humiliate her completely. Possibly bad planning as well; he really ought to keep political enemies to a minimum, and she wasn't going to be thirteen forever. He stood, waited for her to move first. Then again the Gentle Fist was better as a defensive technique...

Hanabi threw a handful of kunai his way. He dodged two, snatched a third out of the air and deflected the last, and then she was on him, aiming for the line of tenketsu in his wrists to stop him shaping seals.

She moved well. She'd have to be a lot faster if she wanted to get him that way, sharingan or no sharingan. He let his eyes go red and started dodging, watching her smooth, practiced movements. There was a bite in them that reminded him of Neji more than any other Hyuuga he'd ever watched fight, a hint of fire.

There were plenty of reasons not to like the Hyuuga clan. There had been something of a rivalry between their clans pre-massacre. (He'd been young and hadn't paid much attention at the time.)

They'd offered to adopt him in when he was orphaned - just so happened they would get their hands on the sharingan if he said yes, and if this ended the Uchiha for good, that was just a bonus. (They weren't the only ones who'd offered, and objectively speaking Sasuke could see it was an offer that didn't cost much and might have rewarded enormously if he'd caved to self-doubt and loneliness and said yes, but he nevertheless held a faint grudge against all who had tried their luck.)

Hinata used to be in love with Naruto. Naruto found Neji attractive. He liked them both.

(With their eyes closed they looked like family.)

"Haa!"

A wall of raw chakra startled him, straight from her striking palm. It felt like a full-body slap, stinging his skin. He jumped back, accompanying the impact instead of trying to stand his ground, rolled in the air. He landed already shaping katon seals, teeth bared.

(they looked like family Hinata's long hair was glossy and black and straight Hiashi's jawline was his father's they all moved like people who'd lived all their life practicing the traditional gestures)

(there was a Branch cousin who wore his hair in a low ponytail that fell between narrow shoulders and walked all light and cat-footed)

Defeating her faster might have been humiliating, but dragging it on would only be a show of pity, and he wasn't in the mood. He blinded her with fire, and then gathered lightning in his hand, charged the spinning wall of raw chakra she'd pulled up just in time to take on his chidori.

He veered at the last possible second and punched it at the ground.

It splintered under her feet, rock heaving with the shockwave, and she stumbled in the middle of her spin. Sasuke dashed in, forcing his way through her weakened chakra. It stung, whipped at his skin, left welts. His elbow crashed into her temple even as she lashed out; he somersaulted over her extended arm, landed at her back.

Brain shaken, she would have fallen on her own in a second, but in the meantime she was still trying to move, so he shaped his fist so the knuckles of his first two folded fingers stood out and hit her spine between her shoulder blades, hand crackling with lightning.

He didn't need to be a Hyuuga to find the major tenketsu.

He got to the exit as the referee reached ten on his count. Naruto and Sakura were still waiting there; Naruto was wincing, Sakura looked resigned.

"... Congratulations on your first win, Sasuke-kun."

He gave a faint snort. There was nothing to congratulate him about. Hanabi was good even for a Clan-bred and Clan-trained thirteen year old, but she was no Neji either, and Sasuke had five years' experience on her. It had been a foregone conclusion from the start and the sheer waste of time irritated him.

It irritated him even more to know that he might also have insulted her clan a little, that he had planned to keep himself in check and in the end he hadn't.

(Why couldn't he have fought her teammate, the Yamanaka brat? He'd have been even weaker, but he wouldn't have looked so much like -)

"Okay, so. Sakura-chan's staying downstairs cause she'll fight the winner of this one, but I'm gonna sit with Shika in the stands, you coming or staying with her?"

Sasuke almost said no to both straight away. But he...

"Think I'll hit the showers first," he said, managing casual somehow. "Go on ahead, Naruto, I'll try to catch up."

Naruto's mouth relaxed; he gave his arm a friendly slap. "You're not even sweaty! I think your match was even shorter than that first one."

"Not because of her." A shrug. "It's muggy outside."

"Aw, fine, fine, princess."

Naruto turned away, hands tucked behind his head. Sakura lingered. She hesitated, and then opened her mouth to say something Sasuke likely wouldn't like hearing, so he smirked at her and drawled, "Ready for our match, Sakura?"

It was something he would have done with Naruto, never her. He didn't want to fight her, he didn't look forward to it. He would fight seriously anyway, and it wasn't merely obligations and social rules and his teacher's advice that made him not want to insult her like that.

(It was just, the thought that he might get into it and take it too seriously, the soft swell of her belly...)

She flushed, shoulders stiffening, and she lifted her chin, part surprise and part pride, and while the way her eyes narrowed a second later told him she'd noticed the misdirection, she said "_Yes_" anyway.

He passed her; she turned toward the arena.

Sasuke's casually challenging smirk fell the second no one could see it anymore.

* * *

**(Naruto)**

"... ultimately, the Gentle Fist is useless if your opponent's good enough not to allow it to hit. She needs more long-range attacks."

"Mnh. She also needs not to land on Uchiha friggin' Sasuke. Seriously, in any other village he'd be jounin by now, that's just a little bit unbalanced."

"Oi, oi," Naruto protested, but with a smile, as he came up behind Shikamaru and Temari. "Stop flattering him, he'll hear somehow and then he'll get all arrogant. Even _more _arrogant." Naruto was grinning the grin of someone who liked hearing it anyway, because yeah, his bastard was that cool. He clasped Shikamaru's shoulder in greeting, leaned between the two of them. "What about me? I'd be jounin too, huh? Huh? Maybe even Kage already."

Temari smirked at him, eyes hooded. Shikamaru snorted and shook his head. "You make it way too easy for her, you know."

"Make it easy for Temari to be mean? Pff, she manages fine on her own." He leaned past them, a hand on Shikamaru's shoulder for balance. "Hi, Ino. Hi, uh, Ino's cousin."

Ino gave him a little wave and a smile. The blond kid seated on Ino's other side gave him a sulky glowery look. "It's _Inoru_."

"Geeze, I met you like one time. Okay, Inoru - now why're you glaring?"

"Your teammate defeated my teammate! ... I should be all pissy at you now, right?"

Naruto snickered, more at the dubious way he'd said it than at the words themselves. Because yeah, even if you didn't get along with your teammate, it seemed right to him that you'd be on their side no matter what.

"And what's this about that guy being like jounin already? It's _super_ not fair."

"Man, tell me about it," Naruto replied as he jostled himself a seat between Ino and Shika on the stone bench. "Stupid politics."

"It's not _fair_."

Shikamaru sighed in a longsuffering way. "Since when has anything in this world been about fairness? It's not fair to them either, being held back."

The kid drew himself up to protest. Ino huffed out an even longer sigh, and put her hand across the kid's mouth. "Think about it in silence for a minute. Sensei's orders."

"So," Shikamaru said, turning to Naruto, "what do you think of the match-ups?"

"Well, uh, it's great that I won't meet Sasuke until the finals."

"... Uh huh?"

And of course Shikamaru had caught on that there was something else he hadn't said. "It's... not so great that Sasuke will meet Sakura first."

He winced. His first reaction had been relief that he wasn't the one who had to fight her. His second reaction had been _'oh, shit, this'll be messy'_. "But it might not happen! She might... uh."

Ino was _glaring _at him.

"... Lose one of her two matches first... Aw hell, I really can't hope for that either." Naruto flopped, elbows on his thighs, head hanging.

"You think Sasuke would be hard on her?"

"Hm? Yeah, though there's the..." He held his hands over his belly, following the curve or an imaginary pregnancy. "But not only. When she's cornered she gets pretty vicious."

The look he got from Shikamaru next was disbelieving; Temari's eyes were silently laughing at him, but then again she always was. "And Sasuke _isn't_?"

"Dude." Naruto gave Shikamaru a disbelieving look. "Sasuke might have put a hand through my chest that one time, but at least he's _never _kneed me in the crotch."

Temari made a snorting sound and Ino went 'pfffft' and turned away, but that didn't really hide her laughter much. Naruto huffed; it was true, damn it!

Shika slumped beside him and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just... Try not to level the arena, okay?"

Ino turned back to him before he could reassure Shikamaru. (Why would he level the arena anyway? ... okay his and Sasuke's matches tended to be hard on the decor, and Sakura's super punches were hardly more gentle. Um. Yeah. But still, the whole arena?)

"Talking about your girlfriend... Where is she right now?"

Naruto almost didn't hear the question, caught in a little gleeful thrill at the word _'girlfriend'_. Sakura-chan _was _his girlfriend! And people knew it! Bwee. Well okay Ino had to know because Sakura-chan was her best friend, but still, they were in _public_! He tried to tone down his sudden grin, scratched the back of his head for distraction against his heated cheeks. "Oh, uh, she's watching from downstairs, since she's up next."

"Ah, alright. I'll see her after that one, then. And your boyfriend?"

The same thrill of _mine mine mine_, no need to even use his name, knowing who this referred to...

For approximately a second.

They'd. Uh. Never talked about this with Ino before. Or... kissed before her or anything. Had they?

Ino was smirking the slow, sensual, _toothy _smile Naruto vaguely remembered seeing in Kyuubi's dreams of his vixens.

"Where's your boyfriend, Naruto-kun?"

Okay. He'd thought he was blushing before? _Now _he was blushing. Oh, Sasuke was going to kill someone over this getting out. Even if logically it had to come out at some point. Yeah. He was totally going to. And Naruto was the designated target. "He uh Iunno. Showering I think."

Ino smirked wider, rested her hand on his wrist, arched her brow like she was curious about that _oh god she wanted **details**__ on the manlove abort abort run away **gnaw off your hand at the wrist**_-

He was lucky; when he jerked up on his feet she let him go, her hand falling with casual innocence. Evil! Sneaky evil! "I. Uh. It's been a while and he's not here yet so he might have drowned or something or maybe someone's bothering him I mean he really should be here by now so I'm gonna. Go. And look for him and. Stuff."

Ino's eyebrows _waggled_.

"_Not for that!_"

He almost tripped on the bench when he stepped back over it to escape, ears burning from Ino and Temari's laughter. (Even Inoru was snickering, though Naruto would bet he didn't get it entirely.) Oh god, next Ino would actually come out and ask for details - and gah! Temari'd been around in Sand and on the boat during their trip to here, she'd have some to share! Gack. He couldn't run away fast enough.

"Wait a moment, Naruto," said Shikamaru, and Naruto did, because his voice was quiet and sober and not teasing at all. "I'll walk with you for a bit." Shikamaru got up too, ambled around the bench, nodded toward the stairs. Naruto followed his lead, grateful, but confused too.

"What is it?"

"About Sasuke."

Naruto groaned. "Oh, not you too."

Shikamaru made a face. "Not about _that_." He drew Naruto through the doorway, down half a flight of stairs. "I just wanted to ask how he's been, since last month."

"Uh? He's been fine. We've been training like crazy with Kakashi-sensei, it's not like he could hide an injury that long."

"I didn't mean physically." Shikamaru sighed, gave him a long, piercing look. "Naruto, his brother is obviously a major trigger for him. Remember the last time he dropped by? No one wants a repeat of the Valley of the End incident."

Naruto flinched.

"... I've seen nothing," he replied after a few seconds of thought. Well, the first days - before the beach - Sasuke had been really touchy, but they'd _all_ been touchy, it came with coming so close to disaster. After that, he'd been... he'd paid a bit more attention to Naruto, for a little while, as Naruto got over the kid-stabbing issues - been gentler, when they turned off the lights and he could pretend no one was seeing it happen - but then they started training again and falling into familiar rhythms, and he hadn't really...

He'd been acting fine. Possibly the _most important person in his whole life_ had dropped by, and Sasuke had made such a major decision as 'I'll choose you guys over him', and then he'd been _acting fine_. How was that not a huge red flag?

How had Naruto not even _wondered_?

"... I've gotta talk to him."

"Oi, Naruto-!"

But Naruto was jumping down the flight of stairs already, turning into the next one. He needed to find Sasuke _now_.


End file.
